Breaking the Disease
by cgaussie
Summary: Installment Six of the Epic story by myself and Invader Poe. Cten now tries to cope with her sick mate, but things are starting to look up. Even Zim has someone to spend time with, a certain lady friend too. And no, not Gaz. >
1. Default Chapter

Breaking the Disease  
Epic Six  
Written by Cartman's Girl and Invader Poe  
  
~*~  
  
Chapter One  
  
Anyway, a few weeks passed. Zib and Enid moved into their own base, not too far away, keeping in the same neighborhood as Cten and Zim's respective bases. Zim built in the same place his old one was, since well, he just wasn't all that creative sometimes. Poe didn't seem to be getting any better, but had at least stopped making awful sounds and throwing himself around the walls of the room, pacing around like a caged animal instead. There was a thick, transparent material seperating the containment room from a questioner's room, where Cten was now. She was sat on a chair, just watching Poe as he stalked back and forth. Maybe the Tallest were right about not reproducing with Rejects, if this is how some of them are. Still, Poe hadn't been like this when she met him, and because of Snab she was now technically mateless yet with a smeet to raise by herself. She sighed sadly, her eyes just glancing at the floor now and again when she felt she was going to cry any time soon. Seeing Poe like this was not easy, and she'd coped with a lot in her life.  
  
One of the times she glanced down, she noticed the muffled sounds of pacing had stopped, and he was leaning up against the glass, staring at her with a kind of primitive curiousity and maybe a hint of recognition. She blinked and glanced at him, but her head still turned downwards. Last thing she wanted was to startle him, and him to start thrashing against the walls again. He tapped on the glass with his claw-tip as if trying to get her attention, perking his antennae somewhat and doing typical 'taller' posturing Irkens sometimes did when encountering one another for the first time; though she'd probably been there before, this was the first time he actually seemed to acknowledge her presance. Cten blinked, slowly raising her head to look at him. Then she slowly stood up, keeping her arms resting by her sides, looking at him - at least trying to look normal without showing how upset she was that even now he didn't seem to recognise her. Her antennae making the usual responce she had done, when in the presence of the Tallest, lowering them slightly.  
  
He seemed to relax when she acknowledged her shortness, and dropped his arms to the side as well, looking down at her. He was topless, and his pants were fairly torn up, as in his thrashings he'd managed to remove his coat and tanktop, shredding them into some sort of bedding, and his ribs could be seen plainly. He seemed to detect her sadness somehow, and turned his head the other way, raising his antennae and giving her what looked like one of those "What's wrong?" looks dogs give their owners. She wasn't sure if he'd understand her or not, since any words before she had said in pervious 'visits' fell on deaf ears. She took a small breath,  
  
"I miss you." she just said quietly, before looking down at her black boots. She was still in the Reject uniform, even if she had spares of her maid uniform upstairs. Poe didn't seem to understand, but he looked sympathetic anyway, and put one of his hands on the glass near the level of her antennae, as though he was trying to touch her through it. He tapped his knuckle against the glass and made a whimpering sound, having been infurated at the invisible barrier at first, crashing against it repeatedly, but he seemed to learn it was there and wasn't moving. Cten couldn't help but look upset now, tears brimming at her eyes. She slowly walked forward, raising a hand and she rested it against the glass where his was. Her antennae remained hanging low, since faking now was against the point. Now the tears ran down her face as she kept her hand against the glass, not able to really look at Poe now she closed her eyes. Poe's claws made a clenching motion against the glass where her hand was positioned, and looked somewhat sad himself to see her in such a state. He leaned forward to try and get a good look into the room she was in, his eyes wandering towards the heavy, reinforced door that lead into his confinement room. She pulled her hand back and wiped her eyes, mentally bashing herself to breaking like this and of all places in here. When she looked at him, she saw his attention was on the door, then glanced back at him.  
  
"I don't blame you for wanting to get out… but I can't let you out yet." she said quietly, "Why am I waisting my breath anyway." she thought to herself, then sighed. "I'm sorry Poe." A look of anger flitted across his face, some of his lower instincts angered by the fact the shorter Irken was denying him, but it seemed to be… fought back? Well, maybe he wasn't totally lost, as his antennae fell limp to the sides of his head. He leaned his forehead against the glass, his hands curling into fists, hitting them against it, but halfheartedly, the lack of food and not to mention the fact he'd more than worn himself out getting to him. Cten sighed, removing her hand from the wall.  
  
"Look, I'm going to send you something to eat through the chute… and this time it's got what I can hopefully call something to help you." Poe seemed to brighten, maybe recognizing the word 'eat', and lifted his head. In the background, though, coming from the upper levels of the house, a wailing sound started to sound off, probably Vist having awoken to find his Mother gone. Poe looked up at the ceiling in confusion, bristling at the sound and lifting his upper lip. Cten glanced upwards too, then looked to Poe.  
  
"I'll see you later then..." with that she turned and walked from the room, and walked into the sliding doorway. From there, it went up to the upper part of the base, she stepped out into Vist's bedroom. It had been Enid's, but with her now living elsewhere it had been made into Vist's room.   
  
"It's all right Vist…" she said calmly before leaning down to his bed and scooping him into her arms. "I'm here now…" Vist clung to her and nuzzled the side of his face into her shoulder, before looking up at her with his big orange eyes, "Where were you, mommy?"  
  
"I was just down with Poe," she replied as she patted his back, walking from the room. Vist scowled slightly and scoffed.  
  
"What do you wanna see HIM for? He's crazy."  
  
"I know he's crazy dear, but he's showing some progress." Cten made her way down to the kitchen, "And it's better then none."  
  
"But won't he attack you or somethin, like he did.." He sought for the name, "Enid?"  
  
"Maybe, maybe not." she sighed slightly as she opened the fridge, "At least he took notice I was there today. He usually just stalks around. A-ha." she leaned into the fridge and pulled out a brown bag.  
  
"Bah." He obviously dislikes Poe, wrinkling his nose-place, then peered over at the bag. "Whazzat?"  
  
"Something for him to eat." Cten said, glancing into the bag. "I picked it up after I put you to down for your nap today." she went over to what seemed to be a mirror, then tapped it when her hand which carried the bag. It slid open, and she emptied the contents - possibly meat, not really sure - down the chute and shut the mirror after it.  
  
"Ew, shouldn't it be cooked?" He made another face, apparently at the age when a smeet begins to ask many, many questions..  
  
"Poe likes it raw, always has." obviously she wasn't bothered by all the questions, since Enid used to do the exact same thing when she was his age. "So little guy, what do you want to do?" Cten turned her attention to him, supporting him now with one arm.  
  
"Dunno." He looked over at her, "Wasn't Sister's egg gonna hatch sometime?" Maybe he's eager for playmates like Zib was.  
  
"Very soon now, yes." she smiled slightly, and gave his antennae a gentle stroke. "You want some friends huh?"  
  
"It does get kinda boring around here. Beka's no fun." He glanced over in the Sir's direction. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.  
  
"Oh she isn't that bad..." Cten set him down on the floor, then activated her disguise. Same time she did, Beka also became the tabby cat curled up in the corner of the room. She made her way through the lounge to the door and opened it, "Hello?" Zib grinned down at her,  
  
"Hey, Ms. Cten." He held in his gloved hands a wad of print-outs, and Vist eyed him curiously. "Remember me, Vist? I'm you're... um..." He looked down at his free hand, trying to figure out just what his relation was, "...brother-in... thingee."  
  
"You're just Zib, Zib." Cten grinned, opening the door enough for him to come in, closing the door behind him. "So, what do we owe the honour of your presence?"  
  
"Well.." He strode into the kitchen, wearing his lab coat, apparently favouring it over his old trench coat these days, "Enid's rather upset about Poe's condition, so I used the new computer system in our base to try and research the disease.. I thought maybe I could find a cure, or at least at treatment."  
  
"You found something?" Cten turned her disguise off, her antennae quirking at the possibility of a treatment at least. Beka kept in her cat disguise, since she was asleep now anyway.  
  
"Well.." He sighed quietly, his antennae scythes drooping as he looked down at his papers. He sat down at the kitchen table, spreading them out. "It's apparently a disease confined to Rejects and their sub-culture, so they haven't studied it in depth.. It's also not.. curable." Her antennae lowered, now hanging by her head.  
  
"Oh." she said quickly, before picking Vist up again possibly for physical contact after hearing something like this.  
  
"BUT!" He raised his claw, having a flair dramatic timing, "It is _treatable_, I believe. There aren't any formal treatment regimens made by the Irken government, since of course they don't care, but as soon as the patient is given a stable, familiar environment. The only recessive symptoms might be increased primtive behaviour, such as carnivorous tendances, tendancy towards non-linguistic verbal communications, prone to attack if angered or cornered.." Cten just sat down on a chair across from Zib, glancing at the papers now and again trying to make sense of it all.  
  
"I can't give him a stable, familiar environment... he seems to bristle each time he hears anything from Vist. I can't chance anything happening to either of them." she said quietly.  
  
"I also did some research on that, since that's a more widely spread phenomena. In theory, once the disease has been brought under control, so should have all his more instinctual urges.." Vist was of course lost in the conversation, but added anyway,  
  
"He just doesn't like me!"  
  
"Sad, but it's true Zib..." she held Vist close to her, shutting her eyes. "He didn't care for him even when I laid him, or when he hatched... Maybe I just have to face facts I've lost my mate."  
  
"You can't give up like that, Cten," He said quietly, "There was.. another reason I took more interest in the disease after I researched it.. Given the mild symptoms of infection, all signs would indicate that Poe already _had_ the disase, and has as long as we've known him, and maybe being attacked by the other Reject it made it somewhat worse.." Cten turned her head away, opening her eyes to stare at the ground.  
  
"Then what do you propose I do, Zib. Tell me that."  
  
"I don't know." He admitted, "But _we'll_ have to do something.." He paused for a moment, pushing his glasses upwards, "..because it's hereditary."  
  
"Something in the back of my mind always told me it was wrong to ever get like this with Poe." she narrowed her eyes, "I never did listen to my instincts. And now even my daughter is up to get this disease, and possibly my grandchildren." Cten made a growl sound, "I was crazy." Zib sighed.  
  
"Don't remind me. I admit there might be no saving Poe by now.. but at least we could prevent it in the others." He glanced over at Vist, "All four of them."  
  
"Not to sound rude Zib, but if you could leave now I'd appreciate it." Cten said quietly as shut her eyes again. Zib frowned, then nodded and stood up, leaving the kitchen and going out the front door, leaving the papers behind for her to look at. Vist looked worried,  
  
"Mommy, why'd he look at me like that?"  
  
"Because... because your Daddy had the disease too." she said quietly.  
  
"My Daddy?" He looked further confused, poor guy was probably way too young to understand what had happened.  
  
"Honey," she turned him to face her, then stroked his face. "I think you should wait until you're a little older for me to tell you about that, okay?"  
  
"Okay." He said begrudgingly, glaring down at the floor, or in this case, Cten's lap, his pointy upper teeth sticking out. He then shook his head a bit, making his antennae shake, "Nobody but you seems to like me, Mommy.."  
  
"I know honey..." she put her hand to his chin and gently lifted his head so she was looking at him. "But I'll always be here for you, no matter what happens." Vist smiled, causing his teeth to protrude all the more, hugging onto Cten.  
  
Meanwhile, Zib was almost reaching his home base. It was close enough to Cten, and Zim's place so getting there was no problem at all. The base's chosen colour was a golden hue, so it didn't stick out too much. Surrounding bushes doubled as protection, if any unwanted visitors entered vines would string them up and such. One ornament stood in the garden, a flamingo which was.. oddly coloured green. Oh well. Inside, Enid was sat at the kitchen table, elbows up and resting her head on her knuckles. She was staring at the egg, which was still an egg and sat on a special box made for it. She blinked, then tapped it gently with a claw-tip.  
  
"Come on guys, you've been in there awfully long... isn't it getting crampt?" Zib opened the door and shut it behind him quietly, looking somewhat drained and a bit more downtrodden than when he'd left on his enigmatic mission, the likes of which he hadn't revealed to Enid. He wandered over to this kitchen table, sitting down and setting his elbows on the table, running his claws through his hair before looking up at the egg on the table.  
  
"They still refusing to budge?"  
  
"Yes." she replied, then sighed. "You don't think there's.. something wrong with them, do you?" Enid sounded worried, and glanced over at Zib.  
  
"No, it's probably just a feature of my human heritage, the average gestation period being 9 mo--" he halted suddenly, sitting up in his seat, hair-scythes perking when he heard a faint, almost meek tapping sound. Enid blinked, then stood up and leant over to the egg, leaning to where her ear would be if she had any. Yes, very faint sound of tapping could be heard. She pulled back, her antennae standing straight and her eyes widened.  
  
"...they might be coming...!" Zib stood up as well and moved over to Enid's side of the table, looking down at the egg eagerly. The faint tapping continued on one side of the egg, while on the other there was a loud _crack_ as a tiny fist burst through the wall of the shell. Pieces of shell fell away from the louder crashing from the inside out, this one obviously more eager to get out then it's twin who was still trying to break the shell. Enid knelt down on the ground so she was now eye level with the egg, as more pieces fell off now and then. Eventually small cracks began forming on the other side. With a few more assults from the more energetic occupant, the egg laid in ruins, and the two smeets were exposed to the world. The female with Zib's eyes looked down at the shattered remains of the eggshell, and snorted somehow,  
  
"HAH!" The one laid out besides her, blinked a few times and squirmed in his place. Enid blinked, then looked at Zib.  
  
"...I guess we're parents huh...?" she asked quietly. The male, who had oddly coloured eyes - black on white - seemed to be lost and began making weepy sounds.  
  
"I... guess... so." Zib blinked, seeming lost for words, a rarity, reaching up to scratch the back of his head. The female looked over her shoulder at her brother, and gave him a "Whiner." look. And whine he did, well, whiney cried before Enid leant down and picked him up. He seemed to calm down a lot, snuggling against her as she held him. She raised an eyebrow, already noticing the vast differences between the two.  
  
"Uhh... if you dare, pick up your daughter..." she said. Zib flinched and looked down at her. The female turned her glare towards her father, but seemed to grin slightly, showing off her pointy fangs, as though she recognized him. Zib reached down and lifted her beneath the arms, mumbling to himself,  
  
"Why do I get the feeling you're going to be a lot like my mother…"  
  
"And my Father, when in a bad mood..." Enid looked at her daughter, before looking back at her son who was now gripping onto one of her fingers and starting to suck on it, despite his zipper-teeth. Zib glanced up at the ceiling and blew on his bangs in exhasperation, setting his daughter to his shoulder. She hugged his neck, and Zib started to smile before her hug became tight enough to start to crush his windpipe. His eyes buldged slightly and he tried to lodge his fingers between her little arms and his throat,  
  
"Dear, Daddy.. grk.. would like to breath.."  
  
"Oh my." Enid pulled her free finger from her son's mouth, which he promptly began to cry finding the finger now gone. She managed to grab onto her daughters arm, and pull it down from Zib's neck, then to pull her off of him too. Which might be met with a not so happy responce. "Bad girl, don't try to choke Daddy again." she chided, her son still crying in her other arm. Happy it was not, as the smeet started to flail and claw at the air, making angry little hissy noises.  
  
"It's alright, En, I think she was just being affectionate.." He rubbed his throat, "..I think."  
  
"Didn't your Mom say once, seconds after you were.. uh, born you 'hugged' his legs then tried to drag him off?" Enid kept her daughter at arms length away, letting her hiss to her heart's content.   
  
"Oh, yeah," He grinned slightly at the memory, while the flailing hatchling tried to bite the hand holding her out, though not hard. "I used to be quite like both my parents when I was younger.." He blinked and stopped reminicing when he noticed his daughter chewing on Enid's hand.  
  
"Hey!" Enid shook her hand slightly, then put her daughter onto the table before blowing on her hand. Didn't hurt a lot, but still being bitten by your own daughter wasn't really a nice experience. She sighed, then stuck her finger back into her son's mouth, who yes, all this time had been wailing for some sort of comfort. Zib picked the female back up before she crawled off to destroy something, and she started squirming again. He glanced at Enid with a weary, though slightly panicked look,  
  
"We couldn't have possibly been this bad for our parents… could we?"  
  
"Not _that_ bad." she eyed her daughter, then looked down at her son. "Though... Daddy once told me when I was very small I hated being apart from him so... maybe half this bad."  
  
"Maybe they'll get more mellow with age…" Zib hoped quietly, while his daughter yanked on his forelock and giggled cutely at his slight wincing. "Speaking of parents, I think we should tell them the good news.."  
  
"Well, seeing how you looked when you got home... I think your Mom should know first." Enid's antennae lowered, already had seemed to sense how Zib had left her Mother. Zib winced again, whether at Enid's perception or maybe his hatchling managing to pull out a handful of black hair and weild it over her head victoriously, who knew.  
  
"Alright, I think I know his number…" He unfolded the communications arm of his pod, holding the smeet to him with one arm while he dialed in Zim's code. Zim soon appeared on the screen, doing some experiment of sorts,  
  
"Eh, what is it, Zib?" Zib just held up the female, who was now trying to reach for the pod arm. Zim stared at the female blankly for a while, before his antennae arched forward and he narrowed an eye.  
  
"Oh, they've arrived?" he asked the obvious. Gir could be seen in the background, wearing a bucket on his head and singing about 'If I only had a brain' - curse TV for poor Zim.  
  
"Yeah, a boy and a gi--" He was cut off as the transmission suddenly went static, while on Zib's end, the smeet had managed to catch the evasive communicator, in her mouth, nonetheless, and was cackling around a mouthful of metal. Zim blinked a few times, then arched his eye ridges. Enid scowled at her daughter, quickly freeing her hand again from her son to pull her daughter off. With the quickness, it surprised the smeet and she let go.  
  
"Honestly..." she muttered. Zib sighed and held the communicator out of reach this time. The signal fuzzed back into focus, the wide angle allowing Zim to see both parents and their hatchlings.  
  
"..as I was saying," he picked some of the metal out of the girl's mouth, "Obviously a healthy pair at that... well, at least this one." He looked over at his son and frowned, a bit worried about all the crying.  
  
"Huh, at least _one_ shows the potential of the Irken species." Zim muttered as he crossed his arms, looking a tad annoyed at the wailing from the boy.  
  
"He's clingy, that's all." Enid replied, her daughter once again trying to gnaw her fingers off.  
  
"Irken? I think this one has some wolverine in her, or maybe Tasmanian devil.." He looked down at his daughter, but he spoke with a hint of odd pride, poking her stomach and causing her to squirm and giggle. He then glanced over at Enid, "I… guess they need names, huh?"  
  
"Well it might be _handy_, when telling them apart. Even though they don't _look_ the same." Zim said, seeing the differences in the smeets physical appearance besides the personalities. Enid narrowed an eye at her daughter,  
  
"Well for some reason Ivy sounds right for her. You know... Poison Ivy." she shrugged slightly. "What do you think?"  
  
"Sounds about right. What do you think?" Zib turned the hatchling around to face him, and she blinked, before apparently smirking toothily in approval. "Ivy it is, then." Zib tilted his head to get a better view of his son, "Now, you… hmm…" Ivy scowled, disgruntled that her brother was getting attention, made a swipe for him.  
  
"Hey!" Enid pulled her son out of her range, he hiccuped and pulled down on his antennae.  
  
"I like her." Zim smirked. Enid thought for a moment, then handed her daughter back to Zib before holding her son out in front of her.  
  
"I think I'll call him Ragde." Ragde blinked his eyes open, revealing the black on white eyes he had, even if he couldn't really see anything since it seems he's inheritited Zib's eyesight.  
  
"Ivy, be good." He chided and pulled her claw back, causing her to squirm and fidgit and scowl disapprovingly upon the world. Zib pondered, waving his free hand in front of Ragde's face, "I figured at least one of them would be lucky enough to get my vision.." He reached into the pocket of his lab coat and produced a pair of glasses he'd made, a replica of his own, formulated for somewhat Irken, somewhat human eyes, and placed them on Ragde's face. They were far too big, though, and luckily he'd also inherited his Father's ability to have the levitate mysteriously in front of his features. Ragde blinked a few times as thinks suddenly sunk into clear light, first thing he officially really saw being his Mother. He smiled shyly and grabbed onto her fingers, still smiling at her.  
  
"Hi Radge." Enid smiled at him, before kissing his forehead. Zim rolled his eyes at the mushyness, leaning on one elbow at his control panal.  
  
"Should I… leave you alone now?" Zib glanced back over at the communicator and grinned a bit.  
  
"If you want to, Mom, I know there's only so much familial bonding you can stand."  He managed to do this while holding a now furiously jealous Ivy away from Radge, who wanted whatever her brother got, if not better.  
  
"Yes yes well I have important work to do. So, see you... uhrm, later. And I guess congratulations." with that, Zim hung up and Zib's communicator folded back into his pak. Ragde glanced over at his sister, and seeing the evil glare in her eyes made him whimper and cling to Enid more. Enid glanced over at Ivy, now holding Ragde close to her.  
  
"Not even a day old and already sibling rivalry..."  
  
"I'd be surprised if they weren't fighting in the egg…" He sighed and tried to hold Ivy close to him as well, for Ragde's saftey, "Should we tell Dib or Cten?"  
  
"Well, if you want to tell Dib go ahead." Enid shrugged, stroking Ragde's antennae to calm him down. "As for Mom... how was she?" she lifted her gaze to Zib. He laid his antennae back, and even Ivy seemed to take notice of the somber mood and stop squirming,  
  
"I think she's starting to give up."  
  
"Oh no…" Enid's antennae drooped down slightly, "She really must be upset then, not like she's having the time or her life or anything." she pulled a chair out and sat on it, even Ragde had stopped his whimpering and looked up at her. Zib frowned and put his arm around her shoulders, and Ivy blinked over at her Mom curiously,  
  
"It seems like the only thing that she's got to hold onto nowadays is that hatchling of her's… Maybe seeing her grandchildren would cheer her up?"  
  
"Vist _is_ the only Irken she has anymore... maybe you're right." Enid looked up at him, "Maybe seeing her grandchildren will help her at least be happier today then usual." Ragde looked from his Mom over to his sister, looking slightly confused. He nodded,  
  
"So, communicator, or do we take them over in person?" Ivy tried to at least make a concentrated effort to look like she knew what was going on, but of course, she didn't. Ragde smiled slightly at his sister, covering his mouth with his hands and giggling. Enid persed her lips together, then smiled.  
  
"In person, I think she'd prefer in person and to let Vist see these two." Ivy made an 'eh?!' sound and turned to glare at Ragde, one eyelid twitching and a few sharp teeth sticking out.  
  
"I guess it's time for our first family outing then... They'll need clothes, though, and with eyes like theirs, contacts.."  
  
"Not this young... just cover them with something for today. Those lenses are itchy, and with Ragde's eyes I don't want anything else happening to them. It's not far anyway." Ragde shrunk back against his Mom, then whimpered slightly. Zib nodded again, setting Ivy down on the table precariously, taking a few slow steps backwards to make sure she wouldn't set off, and ran into the living room. He returned with a few blankets, and managed to catch Ivy just before she crawled off the edge of the table, holding one out to Enid. She took it and wrapped Ragde up with it. He squeaked in surprise, but soon finding himself warm and protected he sighed happily, snuggling against the blanket.  
  
"Aw, he likes it." Enid smiled, before putting her contacts in. Ivy resisted every attempt to be wrapped up, of course, tearing a few holes in the blanket with her claws. Zib finally managed to get it around her haphazardly, at least enough to restrain her, much to her dismay. He still had his own contacts in, and started towards the door. Enid pulled her wig on as the two left the base, she closed the door behind them.  
  
"Welp, here we go." she said brightly. Ragde peeking a look out from his blanket at the world, looking all wide-eyed. Ivy seemed curious as well, and it took all of Zib's strength to hold her,  
  
"Good grief… I'm starting to think Zim and Poe's hatred of each other was Nature's way of telling us their DNA should never come into contact with each other.." he mumbled, as they headed toward Cten's house.  
  
"Heh... we're in for a long trip aren't we?" she smirked, looking down at Ragde. "Seems she's everything naughty while he's the good stuff. Weird." the other base soon came into view on the horizon, looking as normal as it possibly could.  
  
"Well, hopefully Ivy got _some_ calmness… Hopefully.." He glanced over at Ragde, "I'd hate to see an Irken stuck without any actual… Irkiness… either."  
  
[To be continued]


	2. Chapter 2

Breaking the Disease  
Epic Six  
Written by Cartman's Girl and Invader Poe  
  
~*~  
  
Chapter Two  
  
~*~  
  
They came to the house, and he took a deep breath, knocking on the door again softly. There was a pause, before Beka opened the door. Her eye cams flashed slightly, when she saw the two both with their children.  
  
"They've arrived?" she asked quietly, just to make sure and she wasn't malfunctioning.  
  
"Yes Beka, this is Ragde..." Enid entered the base, Zib following her as she pulled some of the blanket down to show her son off. Ragde blinked at the robot, tilting his head to the side. "And Zib's got Ivy." Zib carefully removed the blanket, which by now Ivy had become possessive of, and finally gave up, letting her have it. Zib looked around the kitchen,  
  
"Where's Cten, Beka?"  
  
"Ma'am is just drying Vist off after his bath." Beka replied, pointing upstairs. "They're in his room."  
  
"Maybe we should wait for her, then.."  
  
"Yeah." Enid said, then glanced into the kitchen seeing the papers still there. "What's that?" she asked, glancing at Zib.  
  
"Um.." He flinched slightly, setting Ivy down on the linoleum and gathering up the papers, "Just something I printed out to give to her earlier." She picked up a sheet, skimming it over.  
  
"U-huh...?" Enid asked, even Ragde looking up at the paper, even if he couldn't really read at this age he looked interested. Zib blanced and tried to snatch the paper out of her hands, not that it'd be too hard for her to hold it out of his reach. Ivy had wandered over to Beka, and seemed to be studying her. Beka stared back at Ivy blankly,  
  
"Uh, greetings." she said. Enid, now reading with a furrowed brow held it up out of Zib's reach, still reading it.  
  
"Yadda yadda..." Ivy now seemed to be studying the red bop on the end of Beka's antennae, much like a cat watches a mouse (That poor bop..) Zib winced,  
  
"Come on, Enid, I need those in order!" Enid blinked a few times, then stared down at him, the paper still held above her head.  
  
"What do you mean _disease is heriditary_?" Beka, if she could, sweatdropped as her antennae drooped slightly, the red bop drooping with it. Zib glanced around quickly for an explaination,  
  
"It's just, uh, I mean, it's.." Ivy started to grin like a Chesire cat, leaning back and somehow learning to pounce before she even walked, she launched herself at Beka and caused a loud clatter. Enid glanced over at Ivy and Beka, Beka now on her back and Ivy sat on her torso, pulling on the red bop. Beka, used to having her bop glomped by Gir by now, just let her do what she wanted. Then she turned her attention back to Zib, lowering the paper and handing it to him.  
  
"So, by your research I have the disease, as well as Vist?"  
  
"It's not definate," he said quickly, stuffing the paper in with the others, "Just… a possibility. You don't really.. display that many symptoms, and those you might've picked up from watching Poe…"  
  
"And you… came here and told my Mom not only her mate has the disease but her children possibly have it? No wonder she was upset…" she glanced away, setting Ragde down onto the table before sitting down herself.  
  
"Isn't a little bit of knowledge better than ignorance about what you're up against?" He stuffed the papers in his pocket - that'd always been his philosophy, being a person of science and all. "I came here to try and give her hope.. I mean, at least the disease isn't fatal.." He glanced, then muttered under his breath, "As far as I've found out.."  
  
"You don't understand my Mom, Zib. She is happy to be left believing what she wants, and rarely cares for the clean hard facts. If she was like that, I wouldn't be here today." Enid closed her eyes, Ragde wiggled his way to her hand and put his tiny hands onto hers. She looked at him, and he made a little hopeful face at her. Zib's antennae drooped somewhat.  
  
"I figured it was a personal issue for both Cten and I. I don't want you to end up like Poe." He looked over at her over the rim of his glasses. Ivy seemed content to bop the, er, bop back and forth, like a cat toy, giggling in a way that was painfully cute. Beka sighed, then she sensed Cten was coming down to the house with Vist. Enid smiled slightly, then up at Zib.  
  
"I... I don't want to end up like him either." she said quietly.  
  
"With any luck, maybe I can use my knowledge of science for something actually productive and prevent it from happening, and maybe I'll even find a way to save him, too." His own antennae picked up the sounds of the stairs being decended, and he turned to face them. Enid sat up, hearing her Mom approaching and soon she appeared at the door way, Vist walking besides her. She stopped in mid-step, seeing Beka being toyed with by Ivy and Ragde sat on the table, who was now staring at her. Cten looked from Ivy to Ragde, then Zib and Enid.  
  
"Hi Mom.." Enid smiled slightly. Zib tried to put on a grin as well, "They, um, hatched after I got home.. We figured you might want to see them in person."  
  
"Aw..." Cten smiled, then took a few steps and stopped at Beka and Ivy. "Well... congratulations you two." she smiled slightly, then looked down at Ivy. "And the name of that one is..?"  
  
"That's Ivy," he sweatdropped, just now realizing the hatchling was still abusing the poor SIR and went to retrive his daughter, "She's a lot like.. her other grandma." He glanced over at his son, "That one's Ragde.."  
  
"He's more like the shy side of us all." Enid said, picking Ragde up. Cten smiled slightly at Ivy,  
  
"Aw well... they're both adorable." she then glanced back at Vist, who was still stood in the doorway. "Vist honey, come on in." Vist had suddenly been rendered shy, not use to strangers at all, much less hatchlings younger than himself. He wandered into the room carefully. Zib looked at Vist, then to Ivy,  
  
"That's your uncle, Vist.."  
  
"I think just Vist'll be fine for now." Cten smiled slightly, Vist taking her hand quickly as he stood besides her. Ragde blinked at Vist, tilting his head to the side. Ivy gave Vist a look of something resembling,  
  
"_You're_ my uncle? Bah!" Zib frowned,  
  
"Ivy, please, just be nice.." Vist glared back, not pleased at the fact a hatchling was giving him such a snotty look, but stood closely beside his Mother. Enid then picked Ragde up from the table and set him down besides Ivy. Ragde smiled up at Vist, probably happy to see someone else around his size and not being his sister.  
  
"I think you were right Zib… I see some Zim in her." Vist looked over at Ragde, slightly confused by someone besides his Mother smiling at him, and was suspicious, figuring the two were in cahoots. He started to withdraw behind Cten's leg, and Ivy started snickering. Ragde's antennae lowered, making an "Aww..." face and looked at the floor sadly. Cten looked at Vist as he moved slowly, she patted his head.  
  
"You okay Vist?" Vist bristled when Ivy started snickering at him, and he clung to Cten's leg and shook his head, glaring at the somewhat frightening female hatchling from behind the saftey of Cten's calf. Ivy made a 'Bring it on!' gesture, and Zib sighed, kneeling down beside Ivy and picking her up.  
  
"Well they have enough time to get used to each other, I suppose…" Enid said, picking Ragde up, he was still staring at Vist with his slightly upset look. He then yawned slightly, snuggling against his Mom and yawned again. Zib nodded,  
  
"Maybe they'll eventually get along… for our sakes I hope so." Vist's lip twitched, then turned and tugged on Cten's pant leg, asking in what was meant to be a quiet voice, but wasn't quite…  
  
"When are they leaving?" Cten shook her head slightly, then smiled at Zib and Enid.  
  
"Well... Radge looks kinda sleepy dear. Maybe he needs to rest." Enid looked down at Ragde, who was starting to fall asleep in her arms.  
  
"Guess you're right." she replied, before picking up the blanket and wrapping him up in it again. Zib frowned slightly at Vist, then nodded to Cten,  
  
"Ivy will eventually run herself tired.. maybe." He shook his head slightly at his daughter, who seemed content to be in his arms right now, afterall, it was higher up than the floor and felt like some kind of throne. Vist still looked uncomfortable, maybe jealous that there were other hatchlings around, now.  
  
"Okay you two, I'll see you both later." Cten smiled slightly, leading the two out of the kitchen. "Now, you need anything just call me. All right?"  
  
"Course, thanks Mom." Enid nodded slightly, Ragde now asleep in her arms. Zib looked somewhat concerned, afterall, he'd seen Cten earlier and she seemed far too much improved at the moment for his comfort. He didn't say anything, though, following Enid out the door. Vist relaxed when he was left alone in the kitchen with his Mom again. Cten watched them go, then sighed and sat down on the ground. She looked to Vist, and ran her hand over his head gently.  
  
"What was wrong Vist?" she asked quietly.  
  
"I don't like them, Mommy." He glared at the door before sitting down in her lap, pouting, his antennae folded back.  
  
"Why is that?" she asked, resting her hands on the floor.  
  
"I…" He blinked, then shook his head firmly, "Cuz… they didn't like me." He also seemed quite envious of them for some reason.  
  
"Radge seemed to like you." Cten remarked, before laying flat on the ground now letting Vist sit on top of her.  
  
"He looked like a wussy that'd like _everyone_." He said dismissively.  
  
"Oh Vist." she shut her eyes tightly.  
  
"What?" He looked down at her, then looked up and down her at how she was lying down and seemed to be falling asleep on the floor. This seemed like normal enough behaviour to his toddler-aged mind, "Gonna take a nap Mommy?"  
  
"Maybe." she replied, opening her eyes and smiling at him. "Wanna have one with me?"  
  
"Well.. okay." He actually grinned, and slumped until he was snuggled against her chest, using her for a bed. He nuzzled his head into her neck and yawned, making a cute sound. Cten smiled, wrapping her arms around him. Any phsyical contact she got lately was from Vist, what with Poe being what he was. Her antennae drooped slightly, seemed they always did when she thought of her mate. But she tried her best again to not show how she was to her son, and shut her eyes and tried to relax as best she could. He fell asleep soon after, snoring softly.  
  
The darkness seemed to go on forever, like every single light in existance had been shut off. Cten blinked, rubbing her eyes as they adjusted to the lack of light. She glanced around, trying to see if there was anyone else there with her.  
  
"...hello?" she called out, her voice echoing for a while before dying away. Cten rubbed her arms, and started walking, not knowing where or how long it'd be if she got anywhere in this place.  
  
"Cten?" A familiar voice responded from the darkness, and soon enough Poe emerged, looking like he had prior to their visit to Irk; healthy, even a bit out of shape, tamed and warmed by years of fatherhood and home life.  
  
"Poe?" she blinked a few times, staring at him blankly for a while. "...is that really you?" It'd been ages since she had heard his voice, since the only thing recently he'd been able to do was snarl, or roar at the room he was confided in.  
  
"In the flesh." He grinned slightly and strode up to her, lifting one of her antennae gently. He then tilted his head slightly, looking sad, then around at the darkness, "Things must be pretty bad if you're in a place like this…"  
  
"Oh Poe..." she couldn't help but look and sound upset, throwing her arms around his middle and burrying her face against his chest. "Things are so awful! Vist doesn't get along with anyone, Enid might have a disease, you... you're still locked up I don't know how I can go on at all anymore..." she blurted it all out rather quickly, but heck having this all bottled up was sure to come out sooner or later. Even if it was in a realm of fantasy created by her mind. He held her tightly, stroking the back of her head.  
  
"I know things seem bad now. But if there's one thing I learned as a Reject was that as long as you were alive, there was hope.. and without it, you might as well be dead."   
  
"I've had hope... it's all I was ever sure of and even now..." she looked up at him, "I miss you so much Poe... I lay in bed by myself and sometimes I can't even sleep. I want you to get better, with all my being I want you to get well again so we can be a family again..." she closed her eyes as tears now trickled down her face. "I just wish I knew how to help you." Poe looked down at her gently, half-closing his eyes and catching the tear with his knuckle and brushing it away.  
  
"I'm sorry I can't be there for you. I tried.. but I'd been fighting that.. thing inside my head all my life…" Hm, maybe it wasn't confined to Rejects afterall. "I lost it that night before we found our way home… I know, I failed several times over. I failed to protect you, and now, I can't even be there for you to deal with the reprocussions of that…" He sighed and shook his head, "And Vist… Vist is hard for me to look at, because he reminds me of that failure. I'm not so sure I deserve help." He folded his antennae back.  
  
"You do deserve help, I love you, I want you back." Cten held onto him tightly, not wanting this dream to end any time soon "I don't want to be without you.. my life isn't the same without knowing I've got you there..." she managed to open her eyes, but doing so even more tears washed down. "Isn't there anything I can do at all?" He reached up and held her cheeks, stroking them with his thumbs, and locked his eyes with her's.  
  
"Just believe in me, Cten. If this is how you remember me, if this is how you want me… treat me like this. Trust me. If you believe I'm still something besides some kind of wild monster who would hurt - whether by attack or negligence - his own family… Maybe I will too." She was about to reply, when suddenly light began to pour into the darkness, as if a white sun raising in the far distance. Cten glanced over at the light, squinting her eyes as it hurt since she'd gotten used to the darkness.  
  
"What's happening...?" she asked.  
  
"I think you're waking up." He squinted as well, lifting his arm and coat flap to shield them both, then looked back down at her. "Just remember, that no matter what it might seem on the outside… I'm still in there, and I still love you." He squeezed her tightly with his free arm, "Nothing, no disease is going to change that." As the light brightened, he became dimmer and fainter. Cten held onto him, as he began to fade out of sight and the light grew brighter.  
  
"No, no please…  Poe don't leave me no… not again please…" but soon enough the light consumed everything, and her eyes opened. She was still on the ground, and she sat up slightly and looked around the room. Her antennae drooped and she shut her eyes again, rubbing then with one of her hands. She hadn't even checked if Vist was still asleep or not. He was, sleeping soundly, his antennae limp over his shoulders as he used her rising and falling chest for a pillow. He seemed to stir somewhat when she awoke, clinging tighter to her. She blinked a few more times, then stood up slowly. Then she carried Vist onto the sofa and patted his head, before leaving the room she kissed his forehead. After that, she walked from the room.  
  
[To be continued – wow, short chapterness]


	3. Chapter 3

Breaking the Disease  
Epic Six  
Written by Cartman's Girl and Invader Poe  
  
~*~  
  
Chapter Three  
  
Down in the containment room, Poe was leaning against the wall on top of his makeshift bed, fresh blood splattering him from his recent meal.. However, he still looked thin, tired and exhausted, both mentally and physically, and he look like he just woke up himself; but whether it was that or just his downtrodden condition was hard to say. Then the door leading to the examinator's room slid open, and Cten stepped in. She looked over at Poe, then closed the door behind her and made her way slowly across to the invisible deviding door. Staring at him for a while, then slowly smiles at him. Poe's antennae raised when he heard the door open, and he seemed to perk up when he saw her, standing and wandering over to the window, pressing his hands against it and grinning back at her, in a manner not dissimilar to how he smiled at her in the dream.   
  
"Hi Poe." she grinned slightly, and then turned and started walking to the door which lead to his room. "Well… I'm taking your advice, okay? Okay…" Cten took a deep breath before placing her palm onto the door's lock - the only way to really open the door from inside _and_ out - and then she walked into the room and closed it behind her. Yes, she was somewhat afraid but not as much as she thought she'd be. Poe blinked in surprise, watching her curiously, his antennae raising further when she opened the door.  
  
They nearly shot straight up when he recognized her scent, and he suddenly transversed the room in a matter of seconds, leaping at her suddenly. Cten looked surprised yes, but knowing being defensive wouldn't help at all so she just let him do whatever he wanted. He wrapped his arms around her tightly as they collided, probably knocking her over - but then he began nuzzling the side of her head happily, like an overgrown kitten. The two now on the ground, she smiled slightly as he nuzzled her head. So, she nuzzled back closing her eyes and slowly wrapped her arms around his shoulders.  
  
He was also purring like a lawnmower, probably louder than she'd ever heard. He rolled onto his side, taking her with him, and once he'd finished nuzzling he started, er, grooming her apparenrtly, nibbling on the nearest antennae. Cten opened her eyes and watched him quietly as his eyes were fixed on her antennae, nibbling as if her antennae were some dainty morsal. She smiled either way, then lifted her hand up and delicately stroked his antennae with a claw tip.  
  
He stopped suddenly, wincing severely when she touched his antennae - the piercings that'd been there had been ripped out earlier, leaving the antennae ragged. Poe held onto her anyway though, letting her stroke his antennae if that's what she wanted to do. She looked up at his antennae, then at his face. He had scratches from when he used to flail his arms around trying to get out of the confinement area, and possibly when he was making his bed. Cten then ran her hand down the side of his face, careful not to touch any cuts or bruises. Last thing she wanted was to cause him more pain as he was already in some.  
  
He looked pretty bad, but he smiled down at her anyway, an actual, normal smile instead of a snarl or a feral grin. The blood staining him probably didn't help, making him a mess. She looked at him in concern, then smiled at him as she took his face into her hands.  
  
"You know what you need, Poe?" even if she knew it wasn't really worth talking, she couldn't help but do it since she knew he was there. "You need a bath, you're beginning to smell a bit." Poe blinked at her in confusion, probably not understanding what a bath was right now, but he was complacent enough. There was a very utilitarian cleaning-gel stall in the corner of the room, really just a facuet and a drain on the floor, so prisoners could keep themselves decent, but obviously he hadn't made use of it. She was surprised it hadn't been ripped out by him, but glancing at it she saw claw marks so obviously he had attempted. The base must have been more secure then she origoinally thought, then she sat up slightly, now kneeling besides him.  
  
"Okay Poe, I'm going to give you a wash." then getting to her feet, Cten held her hand out to him. "Can you take my hand?" Poe sat up, looking at her hand, then reached out and took it gingerly, slowly standing up. He was rather sore, not only from exerting himself but from sleeping on a concrete floor, and ended up leaning on her. She managed to hold him up, hands by his side.  
  
"I just hope you don't get upset by it..." Cten said quietly as she walked him to the stall, and let him sit down on the ground underneath the faucet, near the drain. He sat down, still looking somewhat lost, probably in a mindset much like a hatchling's right now anyway. He looked up at the determined faucet and glared at it, then over at Cten, waiting to see what she was going to do.  
  
"Now it's all right..." she slowly turned the faucet, but turned it off quickly before a lot poured out and got some on her hands, and knelt down besides him on one knee holding the gel out to him. "See? This is going to clean you, it's not going to hurt." He jumped slightly when the faucet came to life, then relaxed and reached an antennae over to inspect the gel, turning his head slightly. He seemed to understand, or at least trusted her. She smiled, putting the gel on her hand onto his own to give him at least a feeling of it. Poe squished it with his claws experimentally, making a slight face at the gel, looking up at her with a "What do I do now?" look.  
  
"This." she took his hands into hers, then lifted them to his face. He shut his eyes through instinct and she manuvered his hands over his face slowly, the gel doing it's work already and just in this small quantity some of the blood stains slowly dissolved. He squirmed slightly since it was cold, but slowly relaxed, seeming to enjoy the attention and in an usually docile mood. His tightly closed eyes became more relaxed, and his purring started up again.  
  
"Ready for some more of it? I'll just let you have as much as you need." she stood up again, turning the faucet on - still not on full blast. The gel leaked down, some onto her hands. She then moved it to his back gently, not really caring her clothes were now getting drenched and clingy due to the gel which fell onto her.  
  
He flinched slightly, the old scars on his back around his pod having a few new ones among them. Having gotten the idea, he started scrubbing at his shoulder, but he did it rather roughly. Cten turned the faucet off, looking down at him. She shrugged and knelt down, and started rubbing his other shoulder gently. He flicked at some of the gops of gel sticking to him, but otherwised remained cooperative, smiling widely. As the blood and grime was washed away, it could be seen that, while he was still thin, he was starting to fill out - not back into the shape he'd been when they'd first been arrested, though, the lack of food combined with the exercise he'd gotten from the various 'adventures' having given him back his youthful physique, though the scarring made him look older. Cten by now was rubbing at his side gently, knowing how before he used to be ticklish she had to be careful. Her gaze wandered over him, before she looked back down at the ground and blushing madly. She had no idea why she did that, this was her mate after all and she was kinda allowed to look at him like that. But at a time like this, it didn't seem all that right. She then sat up and started to scrub at one of his arms, and started humming nonchantly.  
  
Poe held out his arm, blissfully unaware of her blush, pushing the gel around his chest with his free arm, but mostly seeming amused by it instead of making a concentrated effort to clean. He squirmed now and then, stifling a few almost giggles, he reached out and smooshed some of the goop onto her shirt in 'revenge', thinking this some sort of game now. She blinked, looking down at her mostly already drenched shirt. Then lifted her gaze at him and grinned, and picked up a hand full of gel and smooshed it at his chest in 'revenge', which didn't count as much since he was already partly smothered in the gel.  
  
He looked surprised anyway, then huffed and started tugging on her shirt so he might attack her with the gel more properly, his free hand squishing some onto her neck. Cten stared at him, noting the playful glint in his eye kinda sparking something with her. It'd been ages since she had enjoyed herself, so she shrugged and pulled her gloves off and threw them aside then doing the same with her shirt and boots. He grinned mischeviously and turned to face her, scooping some of the gel off of himself and smearing it up her chest with both hands. She laughed and playfully hit his hands, picking up some more goop and smearing it over his head.  
  
He shook his head, sending some of the goo flying, and wrapped his arms around her lower sides, tugging her down off her feet and into his lap, grinning toothily down at her. Cten grinned back at him, then leant up and nuzzled his head with her own, smearing hers in more of the gel. He nuzzled the base of her antennae, smearing the goo up along the contours of her sides, and it was hard to tell if he was still being playful or something a bit less, er, innocent. She hugged him gently around the shoulders, smiling contently since she'd been waiting to feel him hold her. Better yet, flesh against flesh in this circumstance - even if it started in good fun.  
  
He held her tightly and started grooming her antennae again, closing his eyes and one of his hands wandering up her back, the tips of his claws trailing through the goo. Cten sighed as she ran one hand up the back of his head, then traced it along the base of one of his antennae. She couldn't help but shiver slightly feeling her antennae being groomed again. He arched his antennae slightly, which weren't so pained now, the tips creeping forward to wind around her antennae weakly while he bit at the 'joint' of her antennae, tugging slightly and making a playful "Rrr!" sound. Her hand now ran some of her claw tips up the base of his antennae, now purring herself now. As his antennae wound around hers, her own antennae wrapped gently around his as not to touch where his rings had been situated. He curled his tongue around the joint instead now, arching his shoulders slightly and leaning forward against her, one arm wrapped around the small of her back while the other held her shoulders.  
  
Cten could't help but make a slight groany sound as his tongue wrapped around her antennae joing. Her hand on his shoulder tightened somewhat, since it seemed since he had began nibbling her antennae her skin and senses had suddenly became highly sensitive. Feeling him lean against her, she pressed herself back against him, her hand still rubbing the base of his antennae. He held her and leaned forward until they were horizontal again, and he purred around a mouthfull of antennae, his current condition seemingly have restored his teenage body, but, er, some of the hormones as well. Seemed to reawaken Cten's as well, since she hadn't seemed right about being in this situation since her encounter with Snab. But, seeing as she was with Poe, and her feelings for him had remained in tact this long. She tilted her head against his, her antennae becoming limp in his mouth, now similar to limp noodles really.  
  
He ran them through his teeth, purr-growling and snuggling on top of her, the hand at her lower back wandering down and tugging on the waist of her pants experimentally to see if they'd meet the same fate as her shirt and gloves. She opened her eyes slightly, looking down at his hand tugging at her pants. The sensation what with starting up things that are best left to be completed, then left undone, Cten ran a hand down past his and pulled her pants down, and off. Then the same hand, as the other one was still massaging his antennae, ran along the waist of his shredded pants, her eyes closing as she moaned again. There wasn't much left to his own pants, but he managed to slide his leg out, kicking them off. And.. well, instinct took over.  
  
After, ahem, some time, Poe was resting on top of her comfortably, half-asleep since he had exerted himself considerably. (What with this being the first in a long time and being in a bestial state of mind anyway _; ) He still held her warmly, purring in contentment quietly, the only indication he wasn't asleep. Cten had her eyes shut gently, but she was still awake since she was stroking the back of his head with one of her hands, the other resting over the small of his back. She sighed happily, then leant up and placed a small kiss on his cheek. He made low, murmuring rumble sound, leaning down to nuzzle her lips. He adjusted his weight on top of her and rolled to the side, wincing slightly when he was against the cold, and now wet from the cleaning gel concrete, turning her as well, again. She turned her head to face him, opening her eyes now. Then, rolling onto her side she snuggled against him, wrapping an arm around his waist.  
  
"I love you Poe, don't ever forget that.." she said gently, nuzzling his chest. He looked down at her, smiling, then a look of concentration crossed his face as he began making a soft hissing sound, not for the sake of hissing, but maybe.. to say something? She looked up at him with a concerned look, then reached up and held his face with one of her hands. He lowered his head slightly,  
  
"Sssss.. sssc.. C.. ten?" He blinked as he finally managed to say her name, having to make a concentrated effort to remember how to speak. Cten's antennae perked suddenly, and she smiled broadly.  
  
"Oh Poe!" she said, then held him tightly, "Thank you.. thank you so much..." she murmered. He smiled warmly, then took a deep breath and tried again,  
  
"I… I l… lo-ove… y-you… too." He took another breath, blinking and surfacing from his concentration. She looked up at him, and placed her hands on his shoulders then leant up and kissed him gently on the lips.  
  
"I knew you'd get better…" she whispered. He smiled and kissed her back, before reaching up to hold his head.  
  
"It's… It's still… It's not… gone… yet…" He looked somewhat.. shamed, maybe?  
  
"I know…" she said quietly, "But I'm not giving up on you.. I'll help you as much as I can." one of her hands brushed at the corner of his mouth, "If I could, I'd stay with you in here as long as I wanted.." He reached up and took her hand gently, holding it against his cheek and leaning into it.  
  
"It's al… alright, I… I under…stand."  
  
"Might have to leave when.. well, when he wakes up I guess..." she glanced upwards, then looked back at Poe. "I'll spend as much time as I can with you, I feel more at home here."  
  
"Perss.. personally.. I'd prefer a bed." He grinned slightly, but he looked tired.   
  
"I'll get a bed in here for you... but I don't want to leave." she glanced down at his chest, "But you need your bed." Poe shook his head slighly, then rolled over again, this time rendering her on top.  
  
"Nah… right… now… I'd rather… be one." He was still smiling, and the 'light' that'd been missing from his eyes for so long seemed to be returning.  
  
"Oh you." she smirked, resting her head against him and shut her eyes. "So… do you want to know what's happening in the outside world or should you wait?" Poe nodded slowly.  
  
"Well.. Right now.. I can think more clearly.. Not sure how long I'll be like this." He looked somewhat sad, then shook his head. "I can't remember much.."  
  
"Well... Enid's moved out, to make things easier for me.." Cten said gently, then sighed. "I miss her a lot... but it is easier."  
  
"With.. Zib?" He guessed, folding one arm behind his head, setting his other hand on her back.  
  
"Yes." she replied quietly.  
  
"So…" He seemed oddly complacent with the idea, maybe he'd finally resigned to the fact his daughter's grown up, "Are we… granparents… yet?"  
  
"We are." Cten looked at him, "To one Ivy, and Ragde."  
  
"Ivy and Ragde.." He echoed, tilting his head. "So.. what do they.. look like?"  
  
"Well… Ivy looks a bit like Zib, his eyes and what not... though she seems to be your bad side and Zim mixed together." she smiled slightly, "While Ragde looks a bit like Enid, but he's got Zib's eye sight problem." Cten glanced upwards at the ceiling. "Vist didn't seem to like either…"  
  
"Can't wait to see them…" He said softly, then seemed to remember something in the back of his mind, "If… Enid's not scared of me now… that is…"  
  
"I don't think she is." Cten said, "She loves you too much to be afraid of you..." Poe smiled, stroking Cten's side.  
  
"And.. Vist.. why doesn't he like them?"  
  
"I don't know.. he just, doesn't seem to get along with anyone. He thinks everyone hates him." Cten's antennae drooped slightly, "It gets harder to deal with him.."  
  
"I know… my behaviour… can't have helped that…" He sighed. "It's hard for me to… accept him… because of what he reminds me of… I'm not mad at him… I'm mad at… myself. But…" He glanced upwards as well, "Maybe I can… at least try to be a Father to him… to fix things."  
  
"Only when you're better." she said gently, "Only then."  
  
"I know." He folded his antennae back and held his head with the arm that was convienent, "I can't… stand this… thing… I'm glad I don't remember much about.. how I acted…"  
  
"And I'm not going to remind you either." Cten said sternly. Poe nodded sadly, sighing.  
  
"I just hope it wasn't.. too bad.. I don't want anyone to think.. that's all I am anymore." It had been so long since they'd last seen him, for most of them at least, it might give them the idea that he'd changed while they were gone.  
  
"I'll tell them myself you're not like that anymore.."she traced her finger over his chest. "Then it'll show them I was right.." He smiled broadly and reached up to stroke her antennae lovingly.  
  
"Thank you, Cten.." He said quietly, "For not.. giving up on me."  
  
"How could I ever give up on you?" she grinned, kissing his cheek. "My love's too great for that."  
  
"I guess this makes it.. twice.. you've saved me." He smiled gently, and curled her antennae tip around his finger.   
  
"Yeah.. once from Gor, once from the disease and what others think of you." Cten nuzzled his cheek, closing her eyes.  
  
"I guess I owe you, huh?" He removed his arm from his own head and cradled her's against his cheek and neck.  
  
"You don't owe me anything," she replied, "I'm in heaven now."  
  
"Glad to hear." He said quietly, closing his eyes partly and resting his head on her's.  Cten sighed heavily and started to fall asleep since their, uhrm, pervious activities were one for causing one to become exhausted. Poe started to drift as well, calm and content for the first time in months. Unfortunately, a faint crying sound started to sound from upstairs, followed by a crash. Cten blinked, then sat up.  
  
"...what was that crash?" Poe looked up as well, shrugging,  
  
"Maybe.. you'd better go see." There was a touch of sadness in his voice.  
  
"I'll come back when things are okay up there." she said quietly, then kissed him quickly on the lips before standing up and started to pull her clothing back on. Poe smiled and stood slowly, stretching out and yawning.  
  
"Take your time… I'm not going anywhere." He glanced around the room.   
  
"Well later, expect the computer to make a bed for you." she pulled her boots on, gave him one more kiss before leaving the room. He kissed her back, before reluctantly stepping back and watching her go, looking over at his own clothes.  
  
"Oh well." He wandered over and sat down on his 'nest', apparently uninhibited enough to not mind being in the buff.  
  
Upstairs, Vist was wailing, sprawled out by a toppled end-table by the couch, a lamp shattered nearby. Cten ran up the stairs and into the room, her eyes widening in slight shock.  
  
"Vist? What… what happened?" she hurried up to her son and picked him up quickly, "Oh honey…" she soothed his antennae back, sitting down on the couch and glancing at the shattered lamp as Beka entered. Vist clung to her tightly, sobbing pitifully,  
  
"I woke up an you were gone an I tried to get down but it was kinda far so I tried to get on the table first and.." Well, you get the idea.  
  
"Oh Vist.." she kissed his forehead. "I'm so sorry... Beka? Could you please..?" she glanced at the robot, who saluted and pulled a dustbin and handle out of her head and started cleaning up the mess. He suddenly leaned back, apparently forgetting his sobbing, making a face,  
  
"Why're you all wet, Momma?"  
  
"Huh?" she glanced down at herself, and yup. Still kinda wet. "Oh... well, I was down with Poe and since he was dirty I had to give him a wash." Beka glanced at Cten, before continuing her cleaning.  
  
"Oh." He fidgetted around, but seemed to relax against Cten, holding out his arm and noticing he had a tiny cut on it from the lamp. At the sight of this, he started wailing again. Cten looked down at his arm,  
  
"Oh Vist..." she sat him on the couch and held out his hand, as he pak opened and a little Irken anti-sceptic napkin thing came out. "Now this may hurt a bit, okay?" He made a whimpering sound and nodded, biting his lip and pulling back his sleeve to see the full extent of damage.. A tiny cut, hardly visible, but now that he'd seen it it hurt.  
  
"Okay." she dapped the small cut with the cloth. Even if it was small, Cten, like Zim was kinda hung up on germs and infections. Just hardly shown it, until someone got hurt. Vist yelped and cringed, but was determined to not be a cry baby, though he did cling to Cten with his free arm much tigher, digging his sharp little hatchling claws in. She frowned, then pulled out an adhesive medical strip, or bandaid, and stuck it over his cut.  
  
"There." Vist's eyes opened a bit, and he blinked them open, looking at the bandaid. He let his sleeve fall back down over his arm and hugged her tightly, a few of his teeth jutting out as he grinned. "There, you all better now?" she smiled as she hugged him back.  
  
"Yeah," he snuggled up to her, curling up his antennae happily.  
  
"That's good." Cten looked down at Beka who now up righted the table and pulled a fresh lamp out of her head. "Beka, if you could just contact Zib and let him know that Poe's made some recovery I'd appreciate it."  
  
"Yes Ma'am!" Beka saluted. Vist set his head on Cten's shoulder and held to her. Meanwhile, back at their base, Zib had his head on his palm, and Ivy on his head, tugging at his hair-scythes and trying to 'steer' him, though it was clear he wasn't leaving his seat. His communicator, still damaged, jumped out of his pod suddenly, and he quickly yanked it down before Ivy could finish what she started,  
  
"Oh, um, hey Beka, has something happened?"  
  
"Sir Zib, Ma'am just informed me to alert you to the fact that Sir Poe has made some recovery." Beka glanced up at the Ivy, who was now reaching towards the communicator.  
  
"He has?" He looked surprised, "That's good, uh… What's he doing? Being more docile, trying to communicate, or what?" Beka glanced off screen, then looked back to Zib.  
  
"He can now talk, and seems to have calmed down a little. Ma'am was even in the room with him, actually with him and managed to… ehrm, bathe him." if a robot could blush, Beka would now.  
  
"She did what?!" Zib said with a start, Ivy nearly falling off his head, "She could've been killed! He could've bitten her and gave her the disease!"  
  
"Well, he didn't." Beka shrugged in responce. "If you like, you could come over. Though Ma'am isn't sure if he's up for any visitors."  
  
"I'll ask Enid, I'm sure he'd want to see her at least." He still looked a bit unsure, then looked offscreen, "Where'd she go anyway.. Enid?" He called out, standing up and giving Ivy a chance to try and comedeer him once again.  
  
"Yeah?" Enid leaned into the room from another, Ragde in her arms and he had a light grey shirt on now.  
  
"Beka says Poe's doing much better.. You wanna go see him?"  
  
"...sure, I guess." she replied, in one of her hands some pants. Obviously she was looking through her old smeet clothing to find something to fit the two. He frowned slightly,  
  
"Are you sure? You don't seem too enthused.." He plucked Ivy off of his head, causing her to let loose a viscious scowl upon the room, and wandered over to Enid, "Oof.. I think she's big enough that she'll actually fit into your old clothes…" The shirt was big enough on Radge to double as PJ's.  
  
"Well, is she really sure I mean… I don't want what happened last time to happen again." obviously the last time she saw her Father had left a dent in her relationship with him, even if Zib had explained it was a disease and not really him. Ragde clung to his Mother as Ivy approached, she knelt down and picked Ivy up in a free hand. "So Ivy dear, what colour do you prefer?" Ivy grinned evilly at her brother, then looked up at her Mother. She glanced into the collection of shirts, and reached forward without much reguard for gravity, pulling out something black and silver. Zib nodded slowly and put his hand on her shoulder, "Well, she has known him longer than we have.."  
  
"I know that." Enid set Radge down on the table and put the shirt onto Ivy. "But something like that… just, I'm sorry but it just hurt."  
  
"I can understand, I haven't had the smoothest relationship with my Dad, either." The arm on her shoulder moved to her waist, "But I know you miss him.." Ivy, despite having picked out the shirt herself squirmed when it was put on her.  
  
"I do." Enid looked Ivy over, then held her in her arms despite her daughter's squirming. "But when I go down there, _if_ I go down to see him I want to be alone."  
  
"I understand, I can't imagine him being too keen on seeing me, disease or not." He smiled slightly, but he was kind of hurt by the fact his, er, father-in-law would probably never accept him or forgive him. Ivy scowled when Enid proved to be stronger than Zib, and reluctantly cooperated, looking down at the shirt critically once it was in place. Radge smiled at his sister, then looked into the box of clothes and tilted his head at the array of colours in the box.  
  
"He'll have to forgive you sooner or later..." she sighed sadly. "I have to see him and talk to him, if he can talk it means he can understand me." Zib nodded, rubbing her shoulder unconciously.  
  
"I think I should question Cten before you're down there alone with him, though. His improvement could be a lapse, afterall." Ivy stuck her tongue out at her brother and started kicking her feet back and forth in boredom.  
  
"Okay, okay." Enid then picked Radge up and held him across from his sister. "We'll go over and see if he is making progress." Zib picked up Ivy, who seemed oddly complacent to let him carry her. (I'm thinking she might be a daddy's girl like Enid was. @_@) They set off for Cten's base once more.. good thing it was close.  
  
[To be continued]


	4. Chapter 4

Breaking the Disease  
Epic Six  
Written by Cartman's Girl and Invader Poe  
  
~*~  
  
Chapter Four  
  
Cten was now fixing the lamp, so it was somewhere at least safer this time. She frowned as it was now atop the TV.  
  
"Oh well." she shrugged slightly. Zib knocked on the door for the third time that day, but  it was as he let himself in, peering into the kitchen. Ivy looked around with a "This place, again?" disgruntled look, and Vist bristled as soon as the door opened, running up and shielding himelf with his Mother. Cten blinked down at Vist, then looked up at the arriving group.  
  
"Well, welcome back again." she smiled, placing her hand over Vist's head in an attempt to calm him down. He buried his head into her side, looking at his half-sister and her family with one eye.  
  
"Heh, thanks." Zib said as he sat Ivy down on the floor, where she could, theoretically, do the least amount of damage, "What was his general demeanour when you talked to him, Cten?"  
  
"Demeanour? Well... he first talked afterwards and he seemed upset at what happened, though he couldn't remember what happened either." Cten picked Vist up since he started to make a slight whiney sound as Ivy had been set down. Radge was then placed down besides her, but he scooted close to Enid and hugged her boot as he glanced around.  
  
"..afterwards?" Zib tilted his head, looking somewhat confused. Vist wrapped his arms around Cten's neck, and Ivy turned to Radge, and made 'spooky fingers' at him, giggling insanely. Radge squeaked and moved around Enid's foot so he was shielding himself from her.  
  
"Yeah, afterwards uhmm… we got back to being mates again." she flushed slightly, covering Vist's antennae as she said it. Zib stared at Cten blankly, then launched into a Zim-like rant,  
  
"Cten! For all we know the disease could be an STD! Nevermind it's suppose to exist mainly in saliva!" Vist blinked when he was suddenly somewhat deafened, and Ivy also found amusement from her father throwing his hands in the air.  
  
"Then if I've got it, I've got it." Cten said simply, hand still over Vist's antennae. "I love him and I'm _not_ about to stop doing so, and besides you can go tell _him_ off about it if you want." Zib sighed and shook his head, thankfully not being nearly as stubborn as his mother.  
  
"Fine, fine… All indications would point to that he had the disease to begin with since you two first met…" He ran his hand through his hair, "Still, just… please be more careful, okay? We still don't know what we're up against."  
  
"Fine, I'll be more careful." Cten let go of Vist's antennae, holding him in both arms now.  
  
"So... who sould go in and see him, if we can?" Enid who had kept quiet while this conversation had been making it's merry way along, finally spoke up.  
  
"Maybe he should see you first, En. I think you two have some… patching up to do." Zib said gently, though in a way he wanted Enid to maybe talk her father out of killing him before he saw him again.  
  
"Okay." Enid glanced down at Radge who was still clutching to her foot, and she quickly picked him up and handed him to Zib. "I won't be long." with that she turned and walked from the room, down the stairs to the holding room. Zib took his son and tried to comfort him before he got all waily over his Mom leaving. Poe had decided to put back on what was left of his pants, but at least he was clean now, leaned back against the wall, his arms folded behind his head, eyes closed, possibly snoozing. Enid looked into the room, taking her wig and contacts out and leaving them at the door. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, before walking into the room slowly. Poe's ragged antennae raised when he heard her enter, and he blinked his eyes open, probably expecting Cten, looking surprised. He stared at Enid through the glass, slowly getting to his feet,  
  
"..En.. Enid?" He seemed as uncertain as her, folding his antennae back - not quite understanding what he'd done to her, but knowing it was probably something he should feel guilty about.  
  
"...hi Daddy." she said quietly, the scratched the side of her head quickly. Blinking a few time she looked at him since she'd been looking at the ground. "So, are you.. any better?"  
  
"I… I think so." He leaned his hands on the glass and stared at her with a soft expression, "You seem… a lot more grown up… since I last saw you."  
  
"Yes well…" she shrugged and sat down on the ground, bringing her knees up so she could rest her arms on them. "Now that I live away from home and.. and yeah I guess..." Enid glanced up at him, "You look… uh, better since I last saw you." He smiled, but he looked slightly sad that she seemed so distant. He sighed, lowering his head and closing his eyes.  
  
"The last thing I remember… telling you is that… you'd always be my little girl… and now… I hear I'm a grandfather."   
  
"Yeah you are." Enid smiled slightly, "Ivy… she reminds me a lot about you… but it's the you who used to be around when Zim was causing problems." she then looked up at him, her antennae lowering instinctivly since she knew he could hurt her if he could. "But, but they're both good…"  
  
"I wish I could see them." He smiled again, then frowned when she lowered her antennae, "Enid.. please don't… I'm not… I'm not angry with you… I'm glad you're happy." He tilted his head slightly, "…you are happy… right?" Enid nodded slowly in responce,  
  
"I'm happy… I've got a wonderful mate who cares about me, I've now got two children… but I miss you." she turned her head away, "I admit I'm afraid Daddy… what you did… I know it wasn't really you, and it was just the disease in your mind but… you scared me." she shuts here yes tightly, then brings her fists up to the side of her head. "You just scared me." If he looked guilty before, he looked awful now, and he slumped, his antennae drooping.  
  
"I'm so sorry, En.." he spoke quietly, almost hard to hear, "To be honest… I scared myself too…"  
  
"I'd say more but I don't want you to feel any worse." Enid then crawled up to the glass and sat down besides it, leaning on it now. "But still... I'd be scared too... I am, cause... cause Zib said I might have it." A look of horror filled his face,  
  
"I didn't… I didn't bite you, did I?!"   
  
"Oh no, no you didn't do that." she looked at him, shaking her head quickly. "No… he says it might be genetic, that's all."  
  
"Oh." He relaxed, his antennae drooping limply again. "I… should have figured…" He said sadly, "I never thought anything was wrong with me… well, like a disease… I just thought I was different… It was just another weird part of me, like my eyes or antennae… I'm sorry, Enid." He repeated, then went on in an even quieter tone, "To tell the truth… I wasn't… all that much older than you are when I got together with Cten… I didn't know any better." He was silent for a while, then added, "I'm glad he's taking care of you…"   
  
"...you're not still mad with him, are you?" she gazed at him from the corner of her eye, still leaning against the glass. Poe shook his head slowly.  
  
"En, the whole reason I was against you being with him… Well, you know his parents… I was just afraid that… when the enevitable happened, he'd be just as bad a parent and mate… or worse, abandon you." He looked down at her, "I'm glad I was wrong."  
  
"You know... I think because of how his parnets were, is the reason why he's like the way he is." she smiled slightly, "Ironic yes... but he doesn't want to be like his Mom or Dib at all.." Enid then looked at him. "Daddy?"  
  
"I guess that makes sense.." He blinked down at her, tilting his head, "What is it?"  
  
"When do you think, that you'll be better again?" He glanced at the ground, closing his eyes partly,  
  
"…I'm… not really sure. I feel… I feel a lot better… I think I might've finally got it back under control.. But…" he looked backwards into his cell, "I can understand… that I might still be a threat… and need to be contained."  
  
"Oh. Mom said she was in there with you today." Enid smirked, folding her arms. "I'm just happy that you can talk again.."  
  
"Um… yeah, she was." A hint of a blush crept into his cheeks, which was probably a good sign, meaning he was regaining his sense of civilization. "I am too… It's still… kind of hard though. You never appreciate… how easy talking is, until… you have to make… a concentrated effort to do it."  
  
"Do you want a rest for the rest of today? Zib would have come in and did his usual interogation..." she glanced back at the doors, "But I think you deserve a rest."  
  
"I'm alright.. but I guess that can wait. So.." He looked down at her, "Has he become some sort of doctor?"  
  
"Scientist assistant really." she smiled slightly, "Working at Professor Membrane's labs. Ironic isn't it?" Enid smiled slightly. "He's doing pretty good…"  
  
"Hm.. I guess he really doesn't want to be like his parents." He chuckled softly, "I guess I underestimated him.. I guess it comes from, well.. not being on the best terms with his mother. Hm.. I have a feeling Zim's been knocked down a few pegs by what happened on Irk though…"  
  
"Well maybe things'll fix up for him sooner or later." Enid shrugged slightly. And how, um, right and wrong they were! Over at the base of Zim, his Computer suddenly sparked to live.  
  
"Voot Cruiser entering Earth's Atmosphere, speed is incredibly high. Possibly Voot Cruiser is out of control." Gir raised his eyes to the ceiling of the base, sucking on a lolly pop.  
  
"Oooo, BANG!" Zim hadn't been doing much but mulling around his base lately, ignoring Gir for the most part, only snapping at him every so often. It almost seemed like he was in a… mood? He had been sitting at his computer and muttering to himself when he nearly jumped out of his seat the alert..  
  
"What?! What could this be?" he wondered, and the computer started to repeat itself, causing him to growl and wave his hands at the monitor, "I know, I know! Where's this out-of-control Cruiser headed for?"  
  
"It appears to be headed for... the park." the large monitor showed the image of a map of the city, and a dot which represented the Voot Cruiser. Indeed it was going in all directions, then finally crashed, sliding for a while before coming to a halt. "...and it's landed." Zim winced, having a good idea of what the crash was like.  
  
"Fine, fine.. I suppose being the only Irken around who has maintained a sense of duty and not gotten entangled in familial soppiness I must investigate!" He adjusted the pink collar of his Invader shirt - of course, the Reject shirt had been the first thing he discarded, and had argued long and feircly with the computer to grant him a replica of an Invader's uniform, as well as a disguise, same as before. He slid his wig into place, popping in his contacts and started to march off, before calling offhandedly, "Gir, I may need your assistance. Follow me!"  
  
"Awww, but the Scary Monkey Show's on!" Gir whined, but soon found himself yanked from the floor, stuffed into his puppy costume and being dragged by Zim by his doggy leash. Soon the two arrived at the park, and started searching for the signs of the fallen Voot Cruiser. Wasn't really hard. It seemed to have first landed on the play area, then skidded along through past a hot dog stand, then coming to a halt at the beginning of the woods, half hidden by trees. Zim stopped to examine the still-smoking trail of slag and dirt dug into the ground by the crashing cruiser, making important, thoughtful "Hmmm!" sounds. He did this as he followed the trail to the cruiser itself, and when he saw it, he took a deep breath, steeling himself for seeing a bloody goopy mess, and marched forward to see if the pilot was  still, er, intact. Gir paused to pick up some hot dogs and started munching on them, then chewed on a ketchup bottle. The Voot Cruiser was in very bad disrepair, smoke still bellowing from the engine, one of the blastered had exploded upon impact, the other while in mid-flight - hence the bad flying. The sheild was half open, showing off the lights from inside.  He covered his eyes with one hand, waving at the smoke with the other, and lifted up the shield, peering inside,  
  
"Er, greetings.. to any living occupants, I mean." The figure within the Cruiser was alive, just not... really concious. Sprawled out on it's back, white boots in the air the dark red clad shirt covering the Irken smoking slightly. The occupant's head against the ground, antenane bent in a not so pleasent looking direction, white gloved fingers twitching now and again. Gir hops up besides Zim, and looks on into the Cruiser.  
  
"Oooo... sparkly whites!"  
  
"Eh, answer me!" He reached over and prodded the Irken in the head with his boot a few times, before deciding to run a diagnostic on them, unfolding one of the arms of his pod, a red scan line running over the unconscious Irken's form. "Unconscious? Bah!" He reached in, grabbing the pilot by the shoulders and dragging the Irken out onto the forest floor with much grring and huffing, seeing as he wasn't that strong and most Irkens were bigger than him to boot. But, this one seemed to be around his height at least, and aparantly female. This could be told by the sharp edged curl at the end of both antennae, and black eyelashes. Gir, wanting to be of help picked up her feet, grinning at his Master. He finally set her down on her back, seeing her eyelashes and antennae in a not-so smoke filled environment for the first time, blinking down at her.  
  
"Hmm, she's kinda - eh!" He slapped himself in the cheek and scowled, "None of that, I am a professional! Gir, collect the Voot Cruiser scrap for safe disposal." He picked up the pilot again, managing to sling her over his shoulder with great difficulty and stumbling, figuring any use of his pod legs would just be too suspicious - not that carting around an alien wasn't, but it was less suspiscious than looking like one yourself.  
  
"Yes Master!" Gir's eyes flashed red, and he picked up the Voot Cruiser in his hands, before his eyes faded to blue. "Are we having a tea party, Mad Hatter??" he grinned at Zim from under the Voot Cruiser, before his jets started up and he hovered in mid air. Amazing how no one was around to witness such an event, but still. Try to explain anything in this world and you'll end up with a Throbulator sized head-ache.  
  
A while later, back at Zim's base; the Voot Cruiser is in the repair bay, and Gir, still in puppy disguise is lapping water out from the toilet in the kitchen. Zim had tossed her on the couch, nearly collapsing himself and rubbing his pained shoulder.  
  
"Remind me to bring a hover-stretcher next time.." he muttered, before forcing himself to straigthen out, "Computer! Give me the medical ki--" before he knew it, the red box was being spat at him from the ceiling, and he had to catch it lest it crash into him. He glared down at it, before turning around and examining the female in the better light, taking out a bottle of Irken alchohol and a cloth and washing off the various small cuts and bruises she had. The female seemed to react to this, turning her head away. She hissed quietly, since it would hurt a bit, and all. Her antennae twitched, and then her eyes snap open revealing the tinted pinkish/red hue they had. After a moment of blank staring at the ceiling, she turned her head to Zim, narrowing an eye at him,  
  
"_What_, do you think you're doing?" she asked in a tone which didn't sound at all grateful.  
  
"I happen to be saving your life!" Zim snapped, bristling, "Not to mention killing any _germs_ you brought into my base." He still had the alchohol, which probably stank and stung.  
  
"Well stop it!" she sat up, glaring at him. "I don't need _your_ help at all, why should I need help from anyone? I was perfectly _fine_. Not my fault the cursed Voot Cruise was in need of such repair I had to land on this miserable rock." she turned her head away, then stared at the monkey image for a while, then waved a hand at Zim shutting her eyes. "And put that away, it stinks."  
  
"Fine? You were unconscious!" He huffed and replaced the bottle of alchohol and cloth, dusting his hands off. "If it were not for Zim you probably would've been discovered by humans and woke up with your squeedly spooch in a jar!"  
  
"If they dared have laid their filthy hands on _me_ they would have been taught a valuable lesson!" she then stood on his couch, pointing her finger dramatically to the sky. "That NEVER to mess with Vishta!" then she folded her arms, and said simply. "So there."  
  
"Humans can't _learn_ lessons, they're stupid monkey people!" Zim then glanced at his shoulder, making a face and brushing it off, "I don't think you were capable of much more than drooling at the time, anyway."  
  
"Well feel honoured you came so close to me." she spat, hopping off the couch and landing besides him, "_Some_ Irkens would have paid a leg and an antennae to at least touch my skin."  
  
"I assure you it was not by choice!" Vishta then glanced around at the base, raising an eye ridge.  
  
"Some set up you got, Zim." He then glanced up at the ceiling,  
  
"Yes, yes, this is my base, a base just like - any proper Invader would have!" Zim said quickly, coughing and glancing back and forth.  
  
"An Invader, huh?" she glanced at him, looking him over. "Kind of short to be an Invader, aren't you?"  
  
"I am merely vertically impaired!" He responded indignantly, scowling, and turning away, folding his arms tightly, and maybe the faintest hint of discolouration creeping into his cheeks, what with the pretty female Irken eying him and whatnot.  
  
"They must have made an exception then." Vishta glanced at the large television screen, "They _usually_ allow the taller stance of Irkens to be Invaders now a days... you must be talented in the field you were assigned then."  
  
"Huh? Oh, yes, of course! Zim is of many, many talents!" He broke out into a grin, then added with a puffed out chest, "And I must use these talents to conquer this ball of filth!"  
  
"Hmm neat whatever." she persed her lips together, "Still, judging by the state of this place it seems you've been here for quite some time." Vishta walked up to the television and ran her white glove over it.  
  
"I assure you this base is new! And immaculate!" Well, that was true, but he thought she was inferring a state of uncleanliness. "My… uh, my mission here has just started--" At this time, several blocks away, Zib was holding an infuriated Ivy and was newly decorated with several kinds of food, his daughter apparently being just as finicky as her 'grandma', and started to dial his Mom for advice as any new parent is wont to do. Zim yelped when the communicator suddenly jumped from his pak when Vishta had her back turned, panicking, he didn't even see who it was, simply ripping the end of the communicator off and stuffing it into his mouth to conceal it, the wounded leg recoiling and re-folding. Zib stared at the screen blankly, which was now giving him a view of Zim's molars, then looked down at Ivy,  
  
"…and here I thought you got that from Poe." Vishta's antennae quirked at the yelping from Zim, and turned around to face him, giving him a long blank stare seeing his face now full of, something metal and not so nutricius looking.  
  
"Uhhrmmm.... what are you doing?"  
  
"Doing? What makes you think I'm doing anything?" He said muffedly, spitting out a few electronic components as he spoke, his eyes starting to tear up as his teeth gnashed against the metal, and with a pained look he managed to swallow the communicator. She stared at the pieces of metal on the floor, then looked up at him, antennae quirked.  
  
"You're not a trash eater, _are you_?"  
  
"What?! No!!" He said in almost a panickey tone, glancing around for witnesses, "That's um.. that's an Earth delicacy! Try it!" He grinned nervously, picking up and holding out a piece of Irken metal from the floor, probably not even realizing that by doing so he was proving he'd become, er, desensitized to eating not-so-lovely things.  
  
"I don't think so." she said simply, moving his hand away from her with the tip of her finger. "I think I'll... just eat nothing right now, thanks. Yes."  
  
"Your loss," he said, deciding to keep up the act by eating the metal himself, then looking like he was going to be ill. "There will be.. many things about Earth.. I suppose I have to teach you," he said woozily, then shook it off.  
  
"You? Teach me? Hah!" Vishta closed her eyes. "I'm sure I'll be perfectly fine in adjusting myself to Earthling lifestyle, Zim, if any, you might have to learn a few things from me, seeing you're so new here."  
  
"I--" He realized he had no argument in mind, so he settled for grunting and jutting out his lower teeth. "Fine! But if you slip up and reveal your alienness, you'd better not expect any more help from me!"  
  
"I think _you'd_ be the one needing help from me! You call that a disguise? Any idiot within a mile would notice that you looked freakishly deformed!" she pointed her finger at him, since he hadn't noticed that he was still in his disguise all this time, and Gir walked into the room, still in his dog uniform. Vishta stared at Gir for a while, then rolled her eyes. "You really _are_ new at this."  
  
"Eh?" He looked up at his wig, and glared at the finger, "This is a FINE disguise! It's served me well so far, the only one who can see through it is Dib and I don't really think he cares anymore." He pulled off his wig and shook it out, since it had a leaf or two stuck in it, and did the same with his contacts. She glanced at the twigs which fell, a bug flying off a twig and flew around the room for a while before being chomped on by Gir.  
  
"Well if I were say, a human and I came across an alien life form I wouldn't give up after such a short stint of watching." Vishta said, crossing her arms.  
  
"He has.. a very short attention span. Yes! Why, he's too incompetant to even try to infiltrate my base.." Meanwhile, Zib was still desperate for advice, he'd left Radge and Ivy in the care of Cten, since he was still over at her base. He'd wandered over to Zim's place and started to simply walk on in out of habit, but remembered he didn't live here anymore and rang the doorbell. Zim froze, his face twisting into a look of panic, and he darted out the door before Vishta could investigate, locking it behind him and not seeming to care he didn't have his disguise. She could still hear the muffled argument, though,  
  
"What do you want?! Go away!"  
  
"I need to know what to feed--"  
  
"Feed them wall plaster for all I care! I'm in the middle of conducting important business!" The voices started to become distant, inferring Zim was pushing Zib away from the door, and Zim finally returned, shutting the door behind him and muttering under his breath, straightening out his collar. Vishta stares blankly at Zim for a while, then blinked.  
  
"You do realise you went into broad day light without your so-called disguise, right?" she glanced past him, as if she could see through the door. "Who was that, anyway?" Zim stared back at her…  
  
"That was.. um.. that was the MAILMAN!" His eyes started darting back and forth again as he scrunched up against the door, "Don't worry, he… has no eyeballs!"  
  
"Then how'd he get to be a mail man if he's got no eyeballs?" either Zim was a terrible liar, or she actually believed him. Who could tell?  
  
"He is.. _very skilled_ at the distribution of mail-stuffs despite his impairment!" He sought for another excuse, "He wanted.. um.. advice.. on how to feed his pet alligators!"  
  
"Alligators? Uhhh… okay…" Vishta shrugged it off, putting her hands behind her back. "So! I guess I'll be taking my leave now so I can look about this city for myself."  
  
"I'll give you a tour!" He offered suddenly, whether out of wanting to assist the female or keep her away from the other bases, who knew. He held up his palm to his face, "I know this place like the back of my hand! Er…" He quickly turned his claws around so he was actually facing the back of his hand.  
  
"Right, fine." she then glanced down at herself, then at Zim. "You don't happen to have anyway I can see what humans look like, do you? I need a disguise to keep them from being suspicious of my appearance, as beautiful as I may be humans are obviously aren't prepared for my vast array of beauty."  
  
"OoooOOooo." Gir said in awe. He snorted mysteriously at the female's vanity, even if he did agree with her.  
  
"Computer, show Vishta a normal example of a human Earth-stink!" A monitor dropped down from the ceiling, displaying a diagnostic image of… oh, I dunno, Jhonen Vasquez? He did say _normal_, though…  
  
"Ew, they're _ugly_ and _stinky_." she snorted somehow, then looked at him. "Does your Voot Cruiser have the disguise applicator? I'll need to make use of it."  
  
"Yes, follow me to the attic. I mean.. the Cruiser hanger." He'd gotten a bit too use to Earth terminology, it seemed, and marched into the elevator. Once in the attic-dash-Cruiser-hanger, Zim barked out an order to the ship, "We need another human disguise! Do your… disguisey… stuff." The Voot Cruiser flashed, and the pods then doubled open to rest the Cruiser, then the disguise applicator got ready and the chooser flashed on. Vishta quirked an eye as she flipped through disguises, landing on one which looked more realistic like Tak's had been.  
  
"Perfect." she smirked, and after some hollaring and screeching from her part, she stepped out from the applicator. Long light green hair tied back in a pony tail hung down her back, two lots ear rings pierced the ears, tiny set of glasses on her nose. As for her clothes, just a light yellow shirt with a brown sleeveless jacket, and a black skirt with white boots. She flipped the green hair, which I might add had a red bow at the top of it. "So! What do you think?"  
  
"You-, er- It looks nice-- I mean, for being a horrible disgusting human thingee." He coughed, drumming his fingers together, then placed his wig back onto his head. "So, shall we?"  
  
"We shall." she replied, grinning. "Let's see what make these clumps of bone and skin tick." After putting his contacts in, he almost held his arm out for her, until he realized what he was doing and stuffed his hands in his pockets, whistling loudly and marching back into the elevator. They soon started out of the base, Zim eying the obvious path - down the populated end of the street since he was at the end of a culdesac - but that's where the other bases were. He glanced around the back of his house,  
  
"Well, uh, follow me!" he set off purposefully for the tall fence behind his house, quickly carving/burning a square-shaped hole in the back of the fence with his pod legs to make it look like that was the proper exit.  
  
"Okay then." she held her head high, the wind causing the green hair to blow slightly. Vishta walked through the hole before Zim, as they say 'ladies first', if you can count Vishta as a lady that is. She stepped out onto the street behind Zim's base, which looked like any other normal street. Trash cans, street signs, people walking and so on. She raised an eyebrow at a few of the people, then glanced at Zim as he clmibed out after her. "They're more ugly and stinky close up."  
  
"Try putting up with a classroom full of them for yea- I mean, weeks at a time!" He looked around first, "Speaking of which, maybe I should show you the Skool, where I've been learning about human Earth behaviour." He figured that was safe, since none of his, er, companions and relations attended it anymore.  
  
"Might as well, I should fit in with the surrounding humans as to not make them notice me around, yet not in this 'Skool'." she fixed the small round 'John Lennon-esque' glasses on her nose.  
  
"Very well!" He set off again, pointing out various sights along the way, mostly the disgusting resteraunts, and telling in detail how very disgusting they were. Then they were there, in the skool yard, apparently one of the periods starting. One of the teachers, who'd been by the doors for some mysterious reason, looked at Zim in confusion.  
  
"Zim, what are you doing here? You graduated years ag-"  
  
"I think that's enough of looking at the Skool!" Zim said loudly and suddenly, taking Vishta by the wrist and dragging her away.  
  
"Hey what?! Let me go!" after a while she yanked her wrist from his grasp. "Don't tell me you were _afraid_ of that lumpy human, were you?" Vishta made a slight glare in his general direction, "They're only humans."  
  
"But that one.. that one's especially smelly. Oh, the smell!" He waved his hands for dramatic effect, not noticing the oncoming scary Chi.. ah screw spelling. Dog.  
  
"I'm sure. I can reasure you, Zim. That I fear nothing! I've seen some things that would make your squeedly spooch explode in a firey ball of... fire!" she made a squishy fist for dramatic effect, unaware of the arriving Scary Chihuahua Dog. "Believe you me, I am not afraid of-" with this she happened to turn around, and see the dog staring at her blankly. Split second after seeing, she screamed and leapt up into Zim's arms, kicking a leg in the dog's direction. "GET IT AWAY!!" Zim yelped when he noticed the dog as well, freezing, square, purply pupils trained on it as it padded past them, but was soon gone. He then glanced over to her, staring at her blankly before quirking one of his eyelids, a smirk or maybe a grin starting to twist the corner of his mouth. Vishta's eyes were tightly shut now, arms still around Zim's neck and trembling pathetically.  
  
"Is it gone yet?" she asked quietly.  
  
"Yeah it - I MEAN, uh, no! I think it's threatening to attack! I'll carry you too, uh… another place. That's safer!" He grinned stupidly, something that looked dangerously close to one of Zib's silly infatuated grins, and started off towards the park. She squeaked as he told her of the 'attack' and just held tighter to him, yes she had seen terrifying things but nothing compared to the spookiness that was the  Scary Chihuahua Dog. Which was now sniffing a fire hydrant. Zim took his time on the way to the park, not that it didn't take a while for him to get there anyway what with his short legs and all, and glanced around once he was in the central yard of the park.  
  
"We're.. uh.. almost there!"   
  
"Is it following us?" she whispered, the two now getting odd looks from passer bys.  
  
"No, I scared it off with my incredible might!" He grinned proudly, then scowled, realizing he could've bought more time if he'd said yes. His arms were starting to get tired though, so he sat down on a park bench.  
  
"Oh." Vishta then opened an eye, showing off the aqua-coloured eyes she now had. "Hey, where are we now?" she glanced around the park area, not really noting she was still being held by Zim. That, or she didn't mind.  
  
"The.. uh.. outer boundaries of the park." He answered, turning away from the big sign several hundred yards away that said "Welcome to the Park!"   
  
"I see." she then blinked, realising the situation the two were in. Her eyes widened, and she quickly scooted off him onto the bench. "Uhrm… I _guess_ thank you for protecting me from that.. thing. I owe you." He frowned and dropped his arms, then shook his head, waving it off dismissively,  
  
"Yes, that thing is fierce and terrible, but it was nothing for a warrior such as I! Think nothing of it."   
  
"Still." Vishta watched as two song birds perched on a tree across from them, singing beautifully and to put it, 'cuddled'. She poked her tongue out at the display of mushy affection so looked elsewhere. "So! What time of year is it now, anyway?"  
  
"I believe it is Spring, the second seasonal rotation on the Earth yearly calander, generally associated with flowery stuff, sunshiney weather, new beginnings, fertility, reproduc…" He suddenly wasn't able to say the word with a straight face anymore, "…you get the idea."  
  
"Humans and Earth's inhabitants only reproduce at spring? No wonder their numbers are so low." she noted how empty the park was, minus a few couples here and there. Vishta sneered, then turned to Zim. "And are they always so fond of showing affection or is that due to the rotation of the planet?"  
  
"Well, no, they, uh, do stuff at all times of the year - this season is just especially so." He glanced over at her, "And yes, they're full of mush! And affection."  
  
"Yuck." Vishta glanced at some little kid who was drooling while staring blankly at the two. The little kid laughed and pointed at them, before running off laughing s'more. "…their young are even more ugly then their adult selves." she noted, then an idea crossed her mind. "…to fit in, we don't have to act mushy do we?" He stared ahead blankly, a grin of pure, well, almost evilness crossing his face,  
  
"Well, I'm not _sure_, it really is _standard_ human procedure, I'd hate anyone to get _suspicious_ of us…"  
  
"Fine... to fit in and not to arouse any suspicion I'll act _mushy_. But only in the presence of humans, understand that." she pointed at him, "None of it when we're by ourselves, no touchy then. Got it, Zim boy?"  
  
"That's… uh, that's fine with me!" He started to inch closer to her, "I personally am _totally_ against unprofessional procedure between members of the Irken military but I don't want to end up with my organs in jars of formaldrahyde, soooo…" He glanced upwards innocently and set his arm around her shoulders. Vishta sighed irritably, but leant against him and glanced at another two children who were walking past, staring at the two.  
  
"We're NORMAL!" she said, as if the two spoke another language. The children exchanged glances, then hurried along. "Meat pigs." she hissed.  
  
"Yes, gaze upon our mundanity!" He announced to any nearby humans, a few of them giving them more odd looks, and pulled her close, "Just like any pair of male and female humans of varying bloodlines!"  
  
"Yes! Highly enjoying the other's company! Take a picture, it'd last longer." Vishta announced as well, closing her eyes dignantly. "I am in great much love with my love pig, Zim! You are all jealous, no?" she opened an eye, glaring at a child.  
  
"As am I with my swine of passion, Vishta!" He rested the side of his head against her's, aww! "In fact, I think we'll have a spawn or two after our… uh… business in the park is completed!" That definately made people give the bench a wide berth.  
  
"Indeed! We shall make… uh, the spawn thingiees where you dirt worms can not stare in shock at our beauty together!" she declared, giving in and actually partly half-heatily snuggling Zim as she placed her arm around his lower waist, and putting one of her white boots down between his black ones. Zim was about to say something else when he broke out into another goofy grin, closing his eyes, which were upturned happily in one of his "^_^" faces. She glanced at him, and mirrored the look, until breaking it cause it hurt her face. Then she noted some couple in the distance give each other pecks on the cheek. She narrowed an eye and stroked her chin.  
  
"Hmmm-Mmmm..." she made the important observing sound. Either Zim's acting skills were really good, or he was being, well, genuine. He had to resist the urge to giggle like a skoolgirl, not pausing to wonder about his behaviour. Vishti smirked, then turned to Zim, her free hand grabbing his head and pulled him and kissed him on the cheek as dainty-like as she could, which was difficult since she wasn't exactly er, dainty. He snapped out of it when he was yanked downward and smooched, glancing down at her. Unfortunately for her, Zim had seen enough mush from Gir's love of soap operas and didn't need reference from humans; he turned his head, and kissed her full on the lips. A few people shook their heads at them and went about their business. Vishti's eyes flashed open in shock, since she didn't expect him to infiltrate her lips with his own. She reared her head back and slapped him across the face quickly, then folded her arms.  
  
"Only so far at a time mister." she smirked, with what, a hint of a smile?  
  
"Hey!" He rubbed his cheek and scowled at nothing in particular, "I was just… you know! It's called kissing! And it's normal!"  
  
"Really?" she quirked an eyebrow in confusion.  
  
"Yes!" He glanced around, "They just happen to have a few acts of affection that are similar to Irken ones…"  
  
"Oh. Uh, sorry for um, slapping you then." she glanced at some human who was laughing at the slap Zim had gotten. "Should I, urhm, make it up or something?  
  
"Yes, you should," He said with a pout that was almost, dare we say, cute.  
  
"Fine." she grabbed him by the shoulders and dipped him in her arms and smooched him fully on the mouth, holding the back of his head now and the small of his back.  
  
"Mgnf?!?" He blinked up at her in shock, but relaxed pretty soon and wrapped his arms around her back.  
  
[To be continued]


	5. Chapter 5

Breaking the Disease  
Epic Six  
Written by Cartman's Girl and Invader Poe  
  
~*~  
  
Chapter Five  
  
Zib, meanwhile, was disgruntled and worrying about his Mother's sanity, sure Zim wasn't the friendliest of Irkens but he'd never been shoved out of the yard before. He became even more worried to find Zim was gone from his base, and was using a little tracking device to find him. He wandered into the park, the bleep getting stronger. He looked up from his device, just in time to see Vishta give Zim the smooch.. And stared blankly, dropping the tracking device, his glasses sliding down. And what a smooch it was! Course, both of them being Irken and wanting to make it _seem_ real, though to Zim it was probably as real as it was ever going to get for him, held it for a while, Vishti holding him in her arms still. Yeah, even her glasses were beginning to slip due to the degree her head as at, but her arms weren't getting tired since Zim _is_ rather.. scrawny. Zim certainly seemed to be enjoying it, but of course Zib didn't know that. His mind couldn't concieve that this could possibly be consentual, so he bristled, pushing up his glasses and going into 'defensive son' mode and producing a laser from his lab coat,  
  
"GET OFF MY MOTHER, HUMAN STINK!" Hearing the scream from Zib, Vishti stopped the kiss and stared up at Zib, or to put it more properly, the laser pointing at her head. She blinked a few times,  
  
"..._pardon_?"  
  
"You heard me, you rapist! Off!" Zib glared at Vishti and not recognizing her as an Irken, never having seen such advanced disguise technology, nor the pak on her back since Zim's arms were currently obscuring it. Zim blinked when he heard the familar voice and groaned loudly, slapping his forehead,  
  
"Zib, I am going to atomize every MOLECULE IN YOUR BODY!" he shouted, before realizing he'd just revealed that he did indeed know this strange yellow-green skinned person… not to mention the fact he was rather upset the kiss'd been ended.  
  
"You _know_ this... thing?" Vishti looked down at Zim, before glancing at Zib again. "He seems _highly_ unruly." she thus let go of Zim, letting him kinda land on the ground with a thud. "And how _dare_ you point that at my face! Do yourself a favor and point it at yourself!" Zib looked confused, still holding onto the laser.  
  
"Who _is_ this, Mom?" Zim winced when he hit the ground, then quickly stood up, growling and muttering up a storm before reaching up and grabbing Zib by one of his antennae-scythes, dragging him a few yards away in a way that was _undeniably_ parental. Not to mention Zib did bear a passing resemblance to him.  
  
"This is Vishti, she's another Irken, she crash landed a little while ago and I was showing her around town!"  
  
"Looked more like you were showing your tongue the way around her mouth," Zib snorted. Vishti got off the bench and dusted at her brown jacket, before fixing her glasses again and glanced at the two. Then folded her arms,  
  
"If you _must_ know, which I highly believe you shouldn't whoever you are, we were trying to not draw attention to ourselves since Zim pointed out this was the season of love and such mushy things to the inhabitants of this planet." Vishti explained simply, before walking up to the two, eyeing Zib. "And now that aside green-yellowy skinned thing. Who are you?" Zim started to answer for him,  
  
"He's a cloning experiment gone--"  
  
"I'm his son!" Zib huffed, then gave Zim an odd look. "I thought you hated mushy stuff…"  
  
"Well you're out of the house now and what I do in my private time is my business, young man!" Zim snapped, though he was blushing furiously.  
  
"Zim's _son_? Impossible. No son of Zim would be so... loud and stuff." Vishti folded her arms, but looked Zib over either way. "Though, you do have the looks of the Irken species... huh." she looked at Zim. Zib stared at her dully.  
  
"Vishti, I'm _quiet_ compared to Mom."  
  
"Hey! And stop calling me that!" Zib actually look a bit hurt at that,  
  
"What, first I can't call Dib dad anymore, now you disown me too just to impress your girlfriend?" Zim flinched, becoming quite worried as the integrity of his story started to unwravel.  
  
"Can I have an _explenation_?" Vanshi lowered her glasses, looking at Zim from over the rim.  
  
"I… er… um…" He started to sweat, as Zib was glaring at him from over his glasses too, something that was somehow very threatening. "As I… started to say… He was a cloning experiment… that that stupid human messed up."  
  
"You've been here longer then you said, haven't you Zim?" she asked quickly.  
  
"Well, maybe a bit, I mean, uh--"  
  
"I'm technically 16 years old." Zib said simply, folding his arms. (Being born at around 'age 5', I guess that'd make him about 21.. ~ Poe*Note) Vishti glared at Zib,  
  
"I was _asking_ Zim, I'm sure he can answer for himself." she said somewhat darkly, then looked to Zim. "So, since a human thing messed up your experiment you've been here well over 16 Earth years? Now, now I'm wondering..." she put a hand to her chin, "Why would you lie about that?" Zib glared back, not really liking this female, probably feeling, ironically, protective of his Mother.  
  
"I… er… um… it's a whole mess to explain, I figured there was no use bothering you with it!" Zim laughed nervously.  
  
"U-huh…" Vishti glanced at Zib, returning the glare. "I must say though, to put up with an experiment for so long it shows you are determined with your projects." she looked to Zim, "I can see why you did not wish to bother me with such matters."  
  
"Put up with?! He--" Zib started, but Zim reached up and slapped his claws over his son's mouth,  
  
"Yes, yes! All this time my dedication to conquering the planet has never faltered, despite a few… minor set backs…" Zib was downright furious now, not about to sit here and let his other parent disown him without putting up a fight, he yanked Zim's hand away from his mouth and snarled,  
  
"I suppose he hasn't mentioned that he's a Reject yet, has he?!" Her eyes somewhat widened as Zib said that, turning her head mechanically to Zim.  
  
"...you _said_ you were an Invader." she said very quietly, hard to tell if she was upset or angry, possibly both at the same time. Zim looked rather pale,  
  
"I… I am!" He said quickly, a hint of his denial starting to rear its ugly head, "There was just a fiasco a while ago that involved me accidently being Rejected…"  
  
"How do they _accidentally_ Reject someone?" she narrowed an eye at him.  
  
"I'm sure they had me confused with another Z-"  
  
"You never were an Invader, Mom." Zib said quietly, obviously never having told Zim what Cten had told him long ago, but hopefully Zim would've pieced that together in his head.  
  
"Should I like, leave you two alone or something?" Vishti wasn't one to get too involved in these sorts of things, as she glanced from Mother to son.  
  
"No, no, I think you should hear this too," Zib said in a stern tone, and Zim felt like the one being punished for once, wincing. Zib glanced back down at Zim, "Zim wasn't very popular back on Irk since he had a knack for causing disasters… He wanted to be an Invader, though, so he forced his way onto the stage during the Great Assigning and harrassed the Tallest themselves for a mission. They probably would have had him killed if Tallest Red hadn't had the idea to give him a fake mission in hopes he'd be lost or die." Vishti stared at Zib, then looked at Zim with a surprised face. Of course, she hadn't been aware of any of this since she was... away from Irk when these events had taken place. She looked a smidgen of a bit concerned for the look on Zim's face. Zib glanced down at Zim,  
  
"And don't start in thinking I'm full of lies, Cten told me this long ago, over the times she babysat me. Afterall, she herself was Maid to the Tallest.. They told her this themselves. Or at least, she overheard them talking about it. She never was a solider either, in fact, they sent her to Earth to reinforce the idea that you were on a real mission." Zim looked like an arugment was on the tip of his tongue, but he was speechless, and instead started to scrunch up, paling.  
  
"Whoa." Vishti just said quietly more to herself as she heard this, at the fact there was more Irkens on this planet then she thought.  
  
"Poe has a theory that you were maybe a milimeter or less over the standardized height for Rejection by shortness, and you might've gotten away with a normal life if you'd been less obtrustive. But because you made a nuisance of yourself, they Rejected you in an unofficial way. You were one long before you ever went before the control brains." Zib looked down at Zim cooly, and Zim actually looked a bit indimidated and shaken, looking up at him,  
  
"Why… didn't you ever tell me?"  
  
"Cten made me swear I'd never tell my mother," He replied, and started to turn away, "But if you no longer wish to assume that role I see no reason to oblige anymore." Vishti looked kinda lost in her own world now, seeing how shaken Zim looked she had the urge to say something, but nothing was coming to mind. She cleared her thought, loudly mind you, and put her hands behind her back.  
  
"That is quite the situation." Zib almost seemed to be waiting for Zim to make some sort of apology, but Zim was in too much shock to say anything intelligible right now. Zib shook his head in disgust and stalked away, presumably back home, muttering,  
  
"I'm never going to let myself be so poor a parent…" Zim just kinda stared ahead blankly, slowly sitting down on the ground as his legs felt weak, resting his head in his palms. She watched Zib go, then turned back to Zim. A slight look of concern crossed her face, but she stomped it out by looking somewhat indignant and sat down besides him on the ground. Vishti glanced around, then half heartidly patted his pod.  
  
"Uhm, there there… there there…" compassion wasn't a plus in her personality, but she tried. He slumped, his whole aura having changed into something that was completely unlike him - he was, indeed, subdued. His lower lip twitched, but he seemed to have enough dignity intact to not start sobbing.  
  
"Come on now…" she then tentivly wrapped her arms around him. Seemed had no problem before, but that was for the sake of not being spotted as aliens. But now, he really needed it. "You'll be fine! You've got your base, you can do what you want now." He ended up leaning against her, though that might've been because he was in a somewhat ragdoll-esque state right now.  
  
"All I wanted was to prove myself…"  
  
"Well... the... the Tallest are jerks for being like that towards you. So you had more get up and go then some Irkens, big dead." she glanced away, still holding him. "You don't really have to prove yourself to them anymore, so, so yeah."  
  
"It wasn't just them. Everyone at the academy, the students, the other teachers.. Just about everyone I ever met." His tone was radically different now, so quiet it was hard to make out.  
  
"Zim." she pulled back and put her hand to his cheek, "Listen to me, I know what you mean. I... I don't really want to say how I know... but I've always wanted to make people realise and take notice of me. Not be just, another one of those Irken faces in the crowd who could easily be trampled out of life by anything bigger then them. But look, we're not on Irk anymore, we _don't_ have to prove ourselves! You just need to be, uhh... happy with yourself." Vishti said this sounding sort of sure of herself, not being a person who really helped make another Irken feel better. Zim blinked, looking out of the corner of his eye down at her hand at his cheek, before he glanced over at her slowly. He still looked somewhat blank and numb,  
  
"Maybe you're right…" He looked up towards the sky. "Maybe this planet.. eh.. deserves more credit than I give it. At least it's not all… polluted like." Of course, it was, but compared to Irk it was hardly noticible.  
  
"Yeah at least you _see_ green bushy stuff." Vishti hadn't seen a tree in her entire life, to be totally honest.  
  
"But… still… I based my whole life around being an Invader!" He drooped again, staring at the grass, "I knew… in the back of my mind, everything Zib told me. I just didn't want to pay attention." He set his head against one of his palms, his other hand twirling a piece of grass around his claw and yanking it out of the ground.  
  
"Well, you've accepted it now. So... what are you going to do? Huh?" she poked his side a bit jokingly, but then just left her hand on his side.  
  
"There really… isn't anything." He flinched slightly when he was poked. "At least before I had a purpose… even if it wasn't real. The only other thing I had was to raise Zib, but he doesn't need me anymore." It was probably a good thing Vishti didn't know Zim that well, otherwise she'd probably have gone into shock herself seeing him so, well, depressed.  
  
"Then let's do things then, have some, what they call it... _fun_." Vishti has heard of it before, from other alien life forms during her time in the galaxy but had never really experienced it for herself.  
  
"_Fun_?" He looked up at her with a slightly confused expression. "What.. sort of fun?"  
  
"I don't know." Vishti shrugged, then glanced away. "I must admit though, spending time with you has been most enjoyable." He glanced off in the other direction,  
  
"Um… yeah." He agreed simply, before folding his arms in his lap and looking down at his thumbs, "I never, uh… really… talked to anyone like that before."   
  
"I never got so _involved_ before." she replied, brushing a strand of green hair from her face.  
  
"Neither had I," he mumbled, and whether he was talking about the chat or the, er, previous activities was left  to speculation.  
  
"…so now what do we do, sit here till the end of time?" Vishti looked at him now, kind of not realising one of her arms were still wrapped around his shoulders. That, or she didn't mind.  
  
"I don't know, sitting's kind of… erm… nice…" He glanced over at the hand on his shoulder.  
  
"Yeah… and I wouldn't really _mind_ sitting here till the end of time… only if you're here though." she coughed slightly, turning her head away.  
  
"I'm not going anywhere if you aren't," He said, almost quickly, and probably thoughtlessly.  
  
"No rush from this Irken." Vishti replied, then leaned her head against his. "…can we be associates, Zim? I'd like that very much."  
  
"Of course." He actually grinned a bit, leaning back and reaching up to set his black gloved hand over the white one on his shoulder.  
  
"Neat." she said, squeezing his shoulder with her hand. "I never had an associate before."  
  
"Come to think of it.. I never did either." He glanced up at the sky.  
  
"We'll be each others firsts then. Yes. This shall be... grand." she smiled at him, and Zim returns the smile then the two just continue to stare at the city as the sun is now slowly starting to vanish as the earth rotates away from it. If you wanna be technical. Meanwhile, back at Cten's base she's managing to spoon some food into Ivy. It looks kind of... meaty and stuff, but mushed up since her teeth are still in 'teething' mode, even if she had been born that day.  
  
"I had to feed you the same thing a few times." Cten glanced at Enid, who had the dozing Ragde in her arms.  
  
"Euw, Mom..." Ivy seemed to be enjoying it, that is, until the door swinging open loudly caused her to jump. Zib was there, his fists clenched, panting through clenched teeth and looking like he was about to burst a blood vessel, shutting the door behind him with equal ferocity. The noise woke Ragde, who gave a small whimper sound before Enid hushed him. Cten glanced through the kitchen to Zib, then gave Enid a look. Enid nodded and got up, leaving Cten to coax Ivy to eat again.  
  
"Zib, what happened?" Zib leaned back against the door, ranting to himself,  
  
"That little… I can't believe he… After I went out looking for him… I thought he cared!" His breathing was ragged, and he seemed torn between kicking something and crying. Enid, never really seeing Zib like this before looked a little taken back. Then tentivly reached out to him, resting a hand on his shoulder and spoke gently.  
  
"Deep breaths Zib… calm down if you can." He slumped when she touched him, his snarly face sinking into a more hurt expression.  
  
"I don't… have a Mom anymore."  
  
"What?! What did… Zim didn't do a Dib did he?" she looked alarmed at this, knowing how close Zib had been with Zim.  
  
"He might as well have." Zib removed his glasses and a glove, wiping off his face and maybe his eyes with his sleeve. "Just so he didn't have to embaress himself in front of some female Irken he met…"  
  
"Why that miserable-say what?" Enid was about to enter Poe-lik rant mode, but the last statement from Zib made her look startled.  
  
"Some female… V-something… forgot her name… crash landed on Earth. He said he was showing her around, but when _I_ first saw them they had their tongues down each other's throat…" Enid's jaw hung open in shock, then blinked.  
  
"Zim was… _kissing_ someone?"  
  
"Well, more like _being_ kissed and enjoying it. She has some advanced disguise thingee.. I thought she was a human attacking him or something! I intervened, he got upset.. He apparently fed her some string of lies about being an Invader new to the planet.. Now I know why he refused my first two attempts at communication." Zib still looked angry, but also on the verge of tears  
  
"Oh Zib..." she pulled him in to a hug with her free arm, Ragde still in her other looking upset at seeing how distraught his Father was. "It'll be okay! Zim cares about you too much, he's probably trying to be friendly to her... what else happened?" Zib leaned against her,  
  
"He told me… not to call him Mom… Probably wouldn't have even admitted to knowing me if he hadn't screamed a threat at me when I interrupted them." He made a strangled sniffling noise somehow, "I got mad and told the female he was a Reject… he started trying to make a cover-up story, so I snapped.. I told her… and him… everything." He wiped at the corner of his eye with his now bare claws, "About how the Tallest exhiled him, about how Cten was sent to make him think he was on a real mission, everything."  
  
"How did he take it?" she asked, rubbing his back gently.  
  
"I don't know, I wasn't really paying attention." He admitted, glaring at the floor, "He was quiet, but I left before I got to see his full reaction."  
  
"Well... I think you should leave him alone to think about things then.. come on, you want something to drink?" she started to lead him to the kitchen, Ragde leaning over and grabbing onto some of Zib's lab coat while looking up at him. Zib nodded slightly and allowed himself to be lead, Ragde obscuring his view of the floor. He smiled slightly, reaching over and scruffing the bit of hair Ragde had affectionately,  
  
"I'm glad I still have a family here…"  
  
"Yeah we love you Zib, you know that. Least I hope so." she grinned slightly, then kissing him softly on the lips. Zib smiled warmly and kissed Enid back, "And we'll never abadon you for anything." Cten glanced up at them as they entered the room, as she was wiping Ivy's mouth with a napkin while trying avoid having the napkin and her finger, bitten.  
  
"What's going on?" she glanced at Zib,  
  
"Zim's just being... Zim Mom." Enid set Zib down on a seat, "Seems there's a new Invader in town and he doesn't want to be called Mom anymore from Zib." she explained. Cten blinked a few times,  
  
"No way." Zib sighed.  
  
"I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised… It's an almost universal behaviour to shun grown-up offspring when a parent finds a new mate…" Somehow, comparing his life to biology didn't make him feel any better, though. Cten looked at Zib sadly, leaning over and stroked the side of his face.  
  
"You've got a family here Zib… just give Zim some time and probably he'll work things out in that head of his."  
  
"Thanks, Ms. Cten… It's just… I dunno. I mean, yeah it hurt when Dib told me off, but I hadn't been all that close to him… But Mo… Zim…" His antennae drooped.  
  
"Look Zib, honey." Cten leant on the table, smiling at him. "You don't have to call me Ms. Cten now. I mean, we are family now. Cten would do just fine, or anything else you want to call me." Zib smiled back slightly,  
  
"Really? I guess I just got into a habit of using that one… Could I even call you… uh… Mom?" He asked in a small voice, seeming almost like a little lost kid again.  Cten smiled, the lok on his face actually reminding her when he was a little kid, then nodded.  
  
"Course you can Zib." A broad grin crept onto his features,  
  
"Thanks, Ms. C… I mean, um… Mom." He corrected himself a bit awkwardly, "It means a lot to me."  
  
"Zib I've always looked out for you, and wanted to help you out any way I can." she stood up, looking at the napkin which Ivy now had in her mouth and was chewing on. "You and your family, since they're my family too." He nodded slightly.  
  
"You always were kind of a parental figure… I mean, I know Zim tried… I mean… I think he did…" He started to slump again, muttering, "He agreed when she said how dedicated he must have been to _put up_ with a faulty experiment for so long…"  
  
"Maybe he was just trying to impress her." Enid pointed out, while she tried feeding Ragde some food. "Remember, you used to get all gloaty 'n stuff around me."  
  
"So he cares about getting laid more than whether or not I still feel like I'm wanted?" he mumbled, in a kind of sulky mood.  
  
"You're a male Zib, you tell us." she said, giving up on one of the jars with Ragde, and tried another. He flinched slightly, rubbing at his arm.  
  
"Still.." Now he really was just sulking, something about his mom shoving him away reverting him back into a kid-like state of mind of the time being.  
  
"Look, Zim's your Mom and he always will be, no matter what he says." Cten said, "He's always been without someond to be… uhrm, friendly with on his own terms. Obviously this female sparked something, but maybe he'll come talk to you later. If he won't, I'll talk to him." she held her finger up to sush Zib if he was to intervene, "And no butts about it." He nodded slightly, resigned and in no mood to really argue. Ivy had been staring at her Daddy with a look of slight concern, and he reached over for her almost automatically, maybe for comfort, who knows, but Ivy clung onto him without any squirming this time.  
  
"I just hope I don't become like him or Dad."  
  
"Zib, I've known you as long as I've been on this planet. And believe me, you are not like your Mom or Dad parental wise. If you were, you would have left Enid when she ended up pregnant and not want anything to do with her." Cten said, Radge now chewing on a spoon. "But you didn't. You care about her, and you obviously care about your children now."  
  
"Still… I'm going to try my best." He glanced down at Ivy, who grinned up at him, showing off her little fangs.  
  
"It's all you _can_ do." Enid pointed out, picking Ragde up since he had thrown the spoon away. Zib nodded absently and hugged his daughter, Ivy wrapping his arms around his throat again happily and maybe this time using a bit more restraint.  
  
"I guess I'll never really have a Dad to model myself after… but still."  
  
"So, you're the true founder of 'Fatherhood' in the Membrane and Irken gene pool." Enid said, "Dib's Father never cared for him, possibly was the same with him. Your Dad rarely was there for you, but now you're going to change that. And I'm proud of you." He smiled widely again, regaining some of his ego,  
  
"Thanks, En." He then pondered, "I wonder if I dare go to Poe for advice in the future…"  
  
"Might help." Cten smiled, "He was a pretty good Father, despite never knowing his own or any others." He looked rather uncertain though,  
  
"I don't know if he'll ever accept me like that though… " There was also the thing about him being afraid of Poe, something that wasn't helped by Poe's recent affliction.  
  
"He has." Enid said quietly. Cten and Zib looking at her blankly, since she hadn't really spoke of what the two had chatted about. "He has accepted I've grown up, and that I'm with you. He's just… relieved that you didn't abandon me when I got pregnant."  
  
"He… has?" Zib seemed dumbfounded, "You mean, he doesn't want to kill me anymore?" Whether he was being sarcastic or serious was hard to tell. He still looked a bit uncomfortable, and Cten was probably the only one in the room that knew about Zib's childhood-old hesitation towards the tall Reject. Cten went over to him and rubbed his back in a small means to reassure him, kinda glad he wasn't small enough to cling to her like he used to.  
  
"He doesn't want to kill you, no. He wants… he wants to be part of the family." He started to relax when he recieved the slight massage,  
  
"I know… but still… I mean… He's Poe, afterall…" He kinda shrank back into his seat.  
  
"You know Zib, still being afraid of Poe because of that one incident is kind of silly... sure you had better reason when he went kinda insane but still."  
  
"Wait, what first incident?" Enid quirked an antennae, not hearing this story before. Cten looked at her.  
  
"One time Zim made Poe babysit Zib, and Poe read him a scary story. Since then he was afraid of Poe." Enid blinked a few times, then smiled slowly. Then she started giggling, then actually laughed out loud for a while.  
  
"Wha?! C-Cten!" He protested in a whiney voice and covered his head in embaressment, "She doesn't need to know about me as a baby!"   
  
"I'm sorry I didn't realise it was so funny... he was scared to be left in a room with him! It wasn't funny then!" Cten shrugged at Zib, then said this to Enid  
  
 "Oh, oh man...!! Wait, was it 'The Picture in the House'?"  
  
"…yes." Zib mumbled distruntedly and folded his arms, striking a pout of dangerous proportions.  
  
"I love that one! He read that to me when I was what… few months old?" she glanced at her Mom, who nodded.  
  
"Oh don't rub it in!" He scrunched up his shoulders, afterall, he'd been the equvillent to about 6 when Poe read it to him.  To this day he refused to look at anything by H. P. Lovecraft.  
  
"Enid dear, stop please." Cten rubbed Zib's head soothingly, "He's already upset today."  
  
"Okay okay, _sorry_ Zib." gee seems both of them had regressed to little child mode. Even Ivy was giggling at him, and he squirmed a bit when Cten stroked his hair.  
  
"Even if you're a Daddy now Zib, yer still my little boy." Cten smirked, then nuzzled his head with her own. "Always like a son to me you know?"  
  
"Aw Mom, cut it out." Enid smirked. He had to giggle himself a bit when she did that, and grinned at his mate, his kids, his 'adoptive' Mom - one big happy family eh? Well, not quite, in the living room Vist was on the couch, by himself, hugging his knees and glaring at Beka as she cleaned, for no real reason other than she was there to be glared at. Beka stopped cleaning the table, then stared at him for a whie.  
  
"Is there a problem, Master Vist?"  
  
"Hmph." He turned away from her and glared at the lamp at the other end of the table instead, since it wouldn't talk back to him.  
  
"All right." Beka went back to cleaning the table. He huffed again, but it came out ragged, and soon he was hugging his knees tightly for comfort, folding his antennae back to block out the happy sounds coming from the kitchen. In the kitchen, Cten then noted her 'dear little son' wasn't around. She glanced around, then went to the doorway leading to the lounge and looked at him, glaring at the lamp.  
  
"Has the lamp done something wrong, Vist?" she asked. He didn't turn to look at her, pretending not to notice her, but his glare turned into a pathetic little expression, directed at his legs this time, a muffled whimper issuing from him. "Oh Vist." Cten walked into the room and sat down on the table, Beka giving her a slight glare since she just cleaned it. She knew what was wrong, he was used to having her all to himself, and not having company around. He turned away from her somewhat and buried his face into his folded arms, the slight shudders indicating he was probably sobbing or close to it. Zib glanced into the room from his place on the chair, looking over at Enid with a "Should we do something?" expression. Enid looked back at him and shrugged, she had tried numerous times to get along with her brother, but he always seemed to shy away from her, and everyone else. Cten rested her head in her hands,  
  
"Honey come on, you know we're going to have lots of visitors."  
  
"But… you're… you're _my_ Mommy…" he said muffedly, and whether he heard and understood the exchange between her and Zib or whether he just felt jealous because other people were around Cten was hard to tell.   
  
"Of course I'm your Mommy, and you're my baby." she reached out tentivly to stroke the back of his head, "I'll always be your Mommy no matter what." Vist leaned back into her hand, lifting his head slightly to reveal his face was tear-streaked, looking over at her with gleaming eyes. She smiled sadly at him, then opened her arms to him.  
  
"Now come on, be my baby and we'll have a happy family together." Vist uncurled himself reluctantly, then slowly wandered over to her and leaned into her stomach, resting the side of his face against her chest,  
  
"But they don't like me.. I jus want you.."  
  
"They like you… your sister loves you, you know that." she said, holding onto him. "Just give them a chance hon, you'll see they care as much as I do." Vist didn't respond, glaring at the table behind Cten. She remained quiet, just holding him against her and shutting her eyes. Vist snuggled against her, his antennae flattened back to show he was irritated. Zib glanced down worriedly at Ivy, wondering in the back of his mind whether she'd have the same trouble socializing.  
  
[To be continued – I'm sorry these chapters are either too long or short, it's hard to cut em up]


	6. Chapter 6

Breaking the Disease  
Epic Six  
Written by Cartman's Girl and Invader Poe  
  
~*~  
  
Chapter Six  
  
A few weeks ticked by, Poe was getting better each day, luckily. As for Zib and Enid, they were discovering the joys of parenting. Like Ivy chewing on anything within her range and so forth. Meanwhile, back with Zim he had agreed, a little too eagerly, to allow Vishti to live with him for the time being. Until her Voot Cruiser would be fixed, and it'd be able to make it's own. Zim had suddenly become a gentle.. er, Irken, constantly asking, to an almost annoying degree, if there was anything he could get her, as well as opening doors, pulling out chairs, whatnot. Right now, he was sitting on the couch with a Big Gulp Suck thingee, looking somewhat exhausted, he wasn't use to being _nice_ afterall, or all these weird emotion.. things. Vishti was meanwhile in a bath, not that she needed it but at least she was away from Zim. Not that she hated him, but being around someone who was so.. nice got annoying indeed. She sighed heavily and slid down under the gel, her antennae just jutting out of it. Zim started to get worried, he hadn't seen her for a whole of.. five minutes afterall, who knows what could've befallen her! He jumped off the couch, slushie still in hand, and started opening doors, checking them to see if she was in them - convienetly forgetting one of them was the bathroom. Soon he slid the door open of the bathroom, just as Vishti was lifting herself out of it and was pretty much, erhm, glistening from the cleansing gel and so forth.  
  
"You in.." He blinked a few times, stared, blinked again, dropping his drink to the ground as he froze. She blinked a few times as the door opened, snapping eye contact with Zim as he stood in the door. Weather or not she didn't care, or was too stunned to move, she didn't move a muscle. After a few moments of stunned silence, Vishti finally moved and picked up a towel.  
  
"Do you want something?" she asked as she started drying her leg.  
  
"…just.. wondered... where.. you.. were.." He squeeked in a high-pitched voice, otherwise immobile. She stood up, arms to her hips, one antennae quirked.  
  
"I told you I'd be in the bath a while ago."  
  
"..wellIforgotsorryforbarginginseeyoulateryouknowhereIamifyouneedanythingbye!" He suddenly spoke a thousand words per minute, slamming the door, his footsteps heard running away from it muffedly. Vishti blinked a few times, then sighed.  
  
"Great, you messed up the opportunity _again_. FOOL!" she smacked herself in the head and continued to grumble as she dried herself, and pulled on her clothing then left the room. Zim didn't stop running until he was nearly out of the house, and he didn't have his disguise on, so. He settled for sitting on the couch and twiddling his thumbs with extreme nervousness, sweating. Gir wandered in, extending an eye-cam at his master, and hopped up on the couch beside him,  
  
"Wuz wrong, Master?"  
  
"..she was NAKED.." He mumbled, almost unintellibily to himself.  
  
"I'm naked!" Gir giggled, then tilted his head to the side. "Izzat bad?"  
  
"You're not an incredibly beautiful Irken female who happens to be cohabitating with me!" He snapped and glared down at Gir.  
  
"...does Master _liiiike_ the pretty one?" the robot asked, a slight hint of giggling forming at the end of his question.  
  
"Erm.." What was that, a blush creeping over his features? "Don't be silly, she's merely my friend and I'm merely assiting her and I merely happened to just see her after a shower and it merely happened to… nevermind!"  
  
"But you _wanna_ be ta'gether don't ya Master?" gee Gir didn't seem as dumb as he looks! "I wanna be wif Beka's bobby ball thingie.." he sighed as little metalic love hearts floated from his head.  
  
"I.. um.. ng.." He arched his shoulders in irritation, "_Maybe_," he muttered under his breath, pinning his antennae back to his head. "But this mushiness I've become afflicted with is totally against Inva- oh, wait."  
  
"You're not an Invader no more!" Gir squealed like a little piggie, pointing to Zim.  
  
"Yes.. you have a point." He glared at the floor, somewhat upset at being reminded of that, but on the other hand it meant he didn't have to hold himself to regulations or protcol anymore. "But she.. well, I'm not really sure what she is but she probably doesn't want anything to do with an exhiled little Reject!" He said huffily, in a sulky tone.  
  
"...what's she?" Gir asked, since he never actually heard what she was anyway.  
  
"She's.. um.." A look of puzzlement disrupted his pouting, "Um.. I don't.. know. But I'm sure it's something _important_!"  
  
"Do you _really_ want to know?" Gir and Zim both jumped at the same time, since Vishti just seemed to enter the room, she'd been listening since they brought up what she was. Zim looked over at her, the blush returning to his face since, well, he had just seen her naked, rendering him speechless. Gir, however,  
  
"Oooooo, tell tell tell!"  
  
"Fine. I was hoping it'd be a while before I'd have to reveal my horrible secret to you." she walked into the room and hopped onto the couch a ways down from Zim. "I'm exhiled. Back on Irk, I caused nothing but trouble for the carers in the Nest, then the teachers in the Learning Chambers. I was to be an Invader, but my antics got me a quick ticket to exhile land with a faulty Voot Cruiser and shot out into space." she turned her head up, antenane flattening against her head.  
  
"You're… what?" He stared at her in shock this time, then frowned, reaching over and patting her limp antennae tentatively, "Well, um, I guess that makes two of us.."  
  
"I had hoped you'd never ask." Vishti glanced at him, "But it's no use trying to cover up what I am. A pest."  
  
"Bah! If that's the case you're the prettiest pest I've ever seen!" He waved his free hand dismissively. She stared at him blankly for a while, one antennae quirked up now.  
  
"...no way, really?" He realized what he said, blushing madly and glancing away, but didn't move his hand,  
  
"Well, um, yeah. And… uh… I don't think you're a pest at all." Vishti smiled slightly, a tint of red flushing onto her cheeks.  
  
"Oh well... thank you Zim that.. that's really nice of you."   
  
"Nice?" he looked back over towards her, and grinned slightly. He'd certainly never been called _that_ before.  
  
"Yeah." she leaned over and tapped him where his nose would be. "Nice." Zim went slightly crosseyed at the finger, and grinned more broadly, his green skin becoming a few shades redder. Gir started giggling insanely, putting his hands to his mouth. Vishti glanced at Gir, then suddenly pointed out the window.  
  
"Look Gir! It's Beka's bobby ball thing outside!"  
  
"OOOOOOOH!" He screamed, "BOBBALLY!" He squealed and shot out of the (closed) window, shattering it. She giggled slightly as she watched him leap and vanish from sight.  
  
"Well, at least I suppose I don't have to worry about Gir reproducing and moving out.." Zim winced as the window crashed.  
  
"Yeah." Vishti then looked at him, and very slowly reached up and ran a claw-tip down one of Zim's antennae.  
  
"Eh? What're you--" He blinked in surprise, eyeing her claw and nearly freezing again, his shoulders scrunching up in response, the affected antennae shooting straight up.  
  
"Look Zim, I'm not going to mess around now." Vishti continued as her hand started twirling his antennae through her fingers, "I… I like you, allright? I know it's against every rule written for Irken protocol, but… you're just so… amazingly in control of things and that you're just really great."  
  
"I… like…" He squeeked, shivering and taking a deep, rigidly controlled breath, "I… uh… likeyoutoo." For once, he didn't have much to say. She smiled back and scooted next to him so now they were sitting besides each other.  
  
"I'm beginning to _believe_ that saying here on Earth, there's someone for everyone." He grinned unevenly,  
  
"It's… uh… always a possibility.." He started sweating again, obviously very nervous or, well, something similar.  
  
"You're too tense, you know that?" she grinned slightly.  
  
"Z-Zim? T-tense? I'm.. perfectly relaxed! Yes!" He coughed nervously. Vishti grinned slightly evilly, leaning against him and asked quietly.  
  
"Do you want to be relaxed?"  
  
"I… um… what.. do you mean?" He leaned his head away from her slightly, looking even _more_ nervous.  
  
"This time, it isn't to fit in." she then leant against him, due to the weight Zim ending up pressed against the sofa now as she kisses him on the lips! Gasp. His eyes widened in shock, and he was rendered frozen for a moment, until he finally started to relax and close his eyes, setting his arms around her shoulders. Vishti smiled as one hand supported his head and the other was still manipulating his antennae freely, kissing him still rather gently mind. His antennae perked forward and he wiggled his fingers, before wrapping his arms around her shoulders tightly and actually pulling her closer, starting to actually, ahem, participate. Her eyes opened in slight surprise as she suddenly felt Zim's tongue begin to force it's way past her lips, she glanced to the side, then closed them as she allowed him to do so, forcing hers back into his mouth.  
  
"Mgff!" He blinked and made a muffled sound, his competitive nature kicking in, he became determined to kiss her harder then she was him, and leaned forward. She muffled something back, when suddenly Zim sat up, still holding onto her and kissing her harder and pushed her down so now he was, ehrm, on top as he held her thightly in his arms. He smirked out of the corner of his mouth and reached up, fumbling with her antennae, not exactly, ahem, experienced. Vishti tilted her head to the side to uh, accomodate Zim's forcefull kissing as she bent her arms up that were over his shoulders to still mess with his antennae, curling the tips around her claws. That only encouraged him, of course, and he slowly became more accustomed to her antennae, trailing his claw down the side. This was met with a slight shudder from Vishti, who broke the kiss quickly, tugging on his antennae.  
  
"Zim look, as much… as much as I'm enjoying this we might have to pause to get somewhere in the base where-" she paused to close her eyes and make a moany sound. "Where any humans passing by can't… see us."  
  
"…huhwah?" He blinked as though out of a trance, sitting up once his antennae were yanked on. He glanced over at the windows, then blushed furiously when she made the moany sound, "I… um… guess you're right." He slowly and reluctantly slid off of her, having a bit of trouble standing. Vishti sat up, taking his hand as she got up also finding it somewhat difficult to walk straight let alone stand.  
  
"So do… do we continue this elswhere…?"  
  
"Eh… um… to the lab!" He pointed forward, well, pointedly; there was a makeshift room he'd made up for Vish, since he usually fell asleep in whatever chair was nearby when he was doing his experiments.  
  
"Yes, lab." the base complied, and the floor beneath them shifted down to the lab, more specifically, Vishti's room. And it's best we, ehem, leave those two to do as instincts tell them to.  
  
Vist was following Cten as she made her way to the elevator, knowing she was going to be leaving soon and whining for attention,  
  
"Can't you just stay out a little while longer?" He held onto a corner of her tanktop, looking up at her with big eyes.  
  
"Now Vist," she knelt besides him showing a slight bit of difficulty. Plus, notice she doesn't look exactly well. "Today, I'm going to let Poe out and about in the base today. I won't be long." Cten smiled at him, then cupped his face in her hands. "And you'll be good, won't you?" He didn't seem to notice the fact she looked slightly ill, his antennae drooping sadly as he looked down at the ground.  
  
"Yes, ma… " He said quietly, letting her go.  
  
"And he promised he's going to try and be a Daddy to you." she said, stroking his cheek gently. "I want you to have a propper family, not just me."  
  
"I dun want him. He's scary…" He put his hands in his little pockets.  
  
"He _is_ scary on the outside, but he's nice on the inside. That's what matters." Cten said, "You have to look past the outside from time to time." He nodded weakly and sighed, partly closing his eyes in resignation. Meanwhile, downstairs Poe was giving himself a shower, wanting to look nice since Cten said it might be the day he finally gets out of the cell, even had some fresh clothes she brought him. As he was drying himself off with a towel, Cten had given him a propper bed during this time as well, and so on. She arrived in the other room, carrying some clean clothes for him.  
  
"Well well, Mr. Clean aren't we?" she smirked slightly.  
  
"Hey, I wanted to look nice for you." He looked over his shoulder and grinned at her, putting the towel over his shoulder without a second thought.   
  
"Aw how nice of you." she smiled gently, entering the room. "Well today's the day Poe, you ready?" Cten held out the bundle of clothes in her hands to him.  
  
"I guess so." He glanced up at the concrete ceiling, "Can't say I'll miss it." He tossed off the towel and put on his tank top first, followed by the rest of his clothes, he even had a spiffy new trench coat. He stretched widely, having to get use to the feel of having so many clean clothes on for the first time in a long while, then glanced over at the door.  
  
"All right... Vist said he's giving you a chance to be a Daddy to him." she held her hand out to him, "So come on…"  
  
"Maybe I can draw him out of his shell.. I know what it's like to be a young outcast, afterall." He took her hand, and followed her too the door. As it opened, he was hit with a blast of fresh(er) air, taking a deep breath and blinking. "I hadn't realized ho stale it'd gotten in there.."  
  
"Yeah it was.." Cten paused to rub her eye with her free hand, then lead him up the stairway. "Let's hope things start going better from now on, for Vist's sake anyway."  
  
"I hope so." He followed her up the stairs, his legs slightly cramped from lack of real use, "So.. have I missed anything in the outside world lately?"  
  
"Well... Zim seems to have gotten, uh, friendly with a new arrival called Vishti." she explained, "She seems all right, but I've only seen her from afar. Zim is still having to talk to Zib about what happened, seems he has disowned him like Dib did."  
  
"Zim, friendly?" He raised his eyeridge, nearing the upper door. "I guess I have to feel sorry for Zib. I mean, my dad didn't want me either, but at least I never knew him."  
  
"Yeah." she stopped at the door and took a deep breath, before opening it up into the living room. Vist had been waiting by the door nervously, then looked up at Poe. He shrunk away from the tall Irken, running by him and clinging to the back of his Mother's leg. Poe started to say something, then sighed, lowering his antennae and trying to look unintimidating.  
  
"Vist, Poe promised he wouldn't hurt you." Cten said gently, smoothing the back of Vist's head.  
  
"I'm not dangerous, Vist. I know I was scary before but I wasn't.. well." He leaned down to his knees, holding out his hand towards the young hatchling. Vist leaned his face against Cten's hip, staring down at the offered hand, then shook his head furiously. Cten looked almost hurt at this, then closed her eyes.  
  
"Vist please, for me at least?" she looked down at him again. Poe did as well, lowering his antennae futher until they were limp against his sides. Vist seemed to consider this, then looked over at Poe with a mixture of fear and… hostility? He tentatively reached out his tiny hand though, and Poe took it gently in his claws, noticing it was shaking.  
  
"I was kind of like you when I was little, Vist." He said in his soft 'daddy' voice, "I was scared of everyone and I ended up alone for a long time…" Cten then sat down on the floor, Vist now stood closely besides her yet still holding onto Poe's hand. To help keep Vist feel a bit safer, she put a hand around him. Vist had his eyes shut now, but his antennae perked a bit at the voice, whether it was because of the gentle tone or the words, who knew. He leaned back against Cten and started to open his eyes up at Poe, who gave him his best gentle smile, careful not to show any teeth.  
  
"See Vist...?" she said quietly to her son, smoothing his side. Vist quickly withdrew his hand from Poe's when Poe smiled, startled, maybe not trusting anyone else enough to accept affection from them - he instead hugged onto Cten's hand. Poe sighed and slowly stood up, looking down at Vist,  
  
"Maybe he needs some time to get used to me.."  
  
"I think so." Cten said, reluctantly calming Vist down as he held onto her.  
  
"He might have imprinted on me negatively when he first hatched.." Poe held his antennae back, glancing down at the floor with a look of slight shame.  
  
"Well you still have time to fix it, Poe." she said, her antennae flattened against her head. Not because of sadness but possibly because she wasn't well at all. Poe looked up at her, tilting his head and reaching out, stroking one of her flattened antennae,  
  
"Are you alright?"  
  
"No, not… not really." she shut her eyes and cringed as he touched her antennae. "I've been feeling sick lately.. and can't sleep at all."  
  
"Uh-oh." He said quietly and moved over to her side, Vist quickly skittering over to the side opposite of him, and put his arm around her shoulders, stroking her cheek with the hand near her face.  
  
"I know what a small part of it is but.. everything else is just worse." Cten opened her eyes, looking at Poe. He looked down at her sadly and hugged her, resting his chin on her head.  
  
"Well… I'm here for you now, at least."  
  
"Thank you.." she shut her eyes leaning against him, one of her arms around Vist. He squeezed her shoulder, holding her close.  
  
"Maybe we should ask Zib about it? He seems to be aspiring to become some sort of amatuer Irken doctor.."  
  
"Only, if you want." Cten shivered slightly. He nuzzled the top of her head and closed his eyes.  
  
"You seem like you could use some rest right now, though.."  
  
"I can't." she said, looking at Vist wearily.  
  
"Maybe I could try to bond with him." He leaned down and suddenly picked her up, something he hadn't been able to do in a long while, "I've taken care of a hatchling before, remember. You're getting some sleep." Cten didn't really respond, since she was out of it by the time he had picked her up, snoozing slightly. Poe smiled slightly down at her, while Vist looked up at him in horror.  
  
"Leave my Mommy alone!" He nearly screamed, and Poe winced,  
  
"Vist, it's alright, your Mommy needs a nap…"  
  
"NO! Don't take her away!"  
  
"She's just going to be in the bedroom--" Vist started wailing. The wailing jolted Cten awake slightly, and she looked down at Vist wearily.  
  
"Honey... want to, want to come and have a nap with me...?" she asked quietly, holding a hand out to him.  
  
"Good idea. Maybe I'll go for a walk, it's been ages since I've seen the light of day." Vist nodded eagerly and managed to clamber up on top of her, clinging to her chest and ignoring Poe for the moment as he started up the stairs, entering the bedroom and setting Cten down on the bed gently. Cten rested her hands over Vist and shut her eyes, already half asleep as Poe set her on the bed.  
  
"Thank you... Poe." she murmered sleepily.  
  
"It's my pleasure." He smiled down at her gently, leaning down and kissing her on the lips before pulling the blanket up, tucking them in. Vist snuggled against her firmly, practically shaking again, and Poe left the room. He found his disguise, which was hidden somewhere  in the living room, putting it on and stepping out hte door, looking up at the sun and taking a deep breath. He smiled, putting his hands in his pockets and walking down the street - stumbling when he passed Zim's base, as a rather loud cry of,  
  
"YEEEEEEESSSSSSSS!" issued somewhere from the ground. He looked disturbed, and quickly made his way to where Cten had told him Zib and Enid moved into, walking up to the base and knocking on the door casually. There was a pause and the door was slowly opened by Enid, she stared at him blankly for a while.  
  
"...Daddy!" she semi-squealed, and threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly. Poe laughed and hugged her back tightly, actually picking her up off her feet.  
  
"Glad to see you too, En." He grinned down at her, "I missed you so much.."  
  
"Oh I missed you so much!" she pulled back from him and grinned broadly, "Zib's at work right now though, but, but you can come in and see Ivy and Ragde!" Poe smiled widely and followed her. Ivy and Ragde were in the living room, Ivy playing with some blocks - well more like stacking them together and then knocking them down and proceeding to cackle. She paused from her cackling when she saw the tall Irken for the first time, looking up at him in slight awe. Poe grinned down at his grandaughter, leaning down again,  
  
"Lemme guess, you're Ivy." Ivy tilted her head to the side, but grinned back at him. Sat across the way from Ivy, in other words out of harms way if he was to get hit by a flying block, was Ragde. He was just clutching a blanket which was semi-wrapped around him. His antennae perked up as he heard the door open, but his eyes were wide in awe (possibly fear too) as he looked up at Poe. He squeaked. Ivy giggled as Poe scruffed her hair, then took off his wig and contacts, figuring they'd do better to see his true form. That turned out to be a bad idea, as as soon as his antennae fell down, Ivy was entranced by them, batting at them like a kitten would a string. He quickly folded them over the shoulder furthest away from her, since Enid had been inclined to do the same thing and generally would bite soon afterwards. He looked over at Radge and held out his hand, determined not to have another hatchling shy away from him today,  
  
"Hey, Ragde… I'm your grandfather." Ragde shied back slightly as he saw how big Poe's antennae were, but he blinked a few times as Poe held his hand out to him. The small smeet then leant forward, kind of sensing this tall black eyed Irken isn't going to hurt him and smiled. He giggled slightly, reaching up and grabbed onto Poe's hand. Enid crouched down on the ground, smiling broadly.  
  
"Aw, they both like you." she said. Poe relaxed, smiling warmly at Ragde. Ivy of course got jealous and crawled over to the side where Poe's antennae were, yoinking on the tip and causing him to fall back out of his kneeling position. He blinked blankly at the smeet's strength, but laughed it off when she clung to his other hand possessively.  
  
"I guess they do." He grinned slightly, then slumped a bit, "That makes two hatchlings that do, at least…"  
  
"Lemme guess, Vist had problems?" Enid asked quietly as Ragde hugged Poe's hand and made a slight 'purring' sound.  
  
"Yeah. He doesn't even want to be near me and started screaming when I helped Cten to bed." He glanced down at the ground. "I'm not so sure she's fine herself…"  
  
"What's wrong with Mom?" she looked at him with a slight alarmed look. "Is she sick?"  
  
"She might be." He said quietly, folding his antennae back and scritching Ivy and Ragde's respective cheeks with his thumbs, "Or… she's pregnant again… She said all the symptoms were worse than the last time thoughs… I think all the stress is getting to her."  
  
"With Vist I don't blame her." Enid muttered, glancing away. "He never gives her any moments to herself, never lets her out of his sight and if any of us dare touch him he has a screaming fit." she sighed, supporting her head with her hands. "I think she's stressed out far too much, and if she _is_ pregnant again that wouldn't help."  
  
"Don't remind me," he mumbled, looking guilty. "If I was in my right mind at the time I never would have… well." He scratched the side of his head. "She's too attached to Vist to try and wean him off of clutching to her, too. He's at the age where he should be becoming more independant.."  
  
"Yeah I mean I was clingy to you but I stopped around his age…" she sighed, shaking her head. "Poor little guy won't know what's going on, he wants Mom all to himself and when the new smeet arrives…" Enid shuddered at the image.  
  
"I don't know what to do for him either.. maybe he'll get use to me. Maybe this is just a phase.." He shook his head slightly. "But… anyway. These guys seem to be doing fine, at least." He smiled down at his grandchildren.  
  
"Oh yeah, Ivy's full of life all the time. It's hard to settle her down for naps and all. Ragde though, no arguements from him." she leant over and smoothed Ragde's antennae, he smiled up at his Mom before smiling at Poe again.  
  
"You're not having any trouble handling them by yourself during the day, are you?" He glanced over at her, "I'd offer to help, but I might have my hands full with hatchlings myself soon…"  
  
"Oh I'm fine." Enid smiled, "I seem to have gotten Mom's mothering skills down pat."  
  
"That's good." He smiled slightly, then arched an eyeridge critically, "Zib _does_ help, _doesn't_ he?"  
  
"Ah Daddy." she smirked, "Course he helps out. He'd be in deep dookie if he didn't. Ivy likes him more anyway."  
  
"Good." He grinned slightly, "I accept him and everything, but I'm always going to be protective." He tried to pull his hand away from his grandaughter to get a better look at her, to no avail. "Huh… she reminds me of you at this age."  
  
"Heh, yeah I know..." Enid managed to lean down and tear Ivy off from Poe's hand and held her out to him. "She's a lot like you and Zim as well, it's a nasty combination sometimes. For Ragde that is." she glanced down at him.  
  
"I can imagine," he murmured, taking Ivy under her arms and holding her up to his face. She blinked her odd, Zib-like eyes at him, and he grinned at her.  
  
"Ooooh…" she stared in admiration at his teeth.  
  
"Aw, Ivy. You should be nice to your brother… You're the first one in the whole family to actually have a full one."  
  
"And possibly first Irken to have a twin. Even if she's 1/4 human." Enid replied, scooping Ragde into her arms. Ivy scrunched up the area where her nose would be in response, and Poe chuckled, poking said area with the tip of his claw. She grabbed onto his finger with her own tiny claws and stuffed it into her mouth, and he started to recoil, thinking he'd be bit, but she started sucking instead. Poe looked blank.  
  
"Um, Enid… what's she doing?"  
  
"She… she likes to suck on our claws now and then. Her and Ragde." she glanced down at her son who was starting to do the same with her thumb. "Zib says it's because human babies suckle milk from their Mother's breasts, and from then they can use dummies as a way to relax them. Weird I know."  
  
"Oh. Well… sorry to interrupt you, Ivy, but I probably shouldn't stay too long. I don't want to leave Cten and Vist alone, especially when Cten's in this condition." He gently set Ivy down and removed his claw, "I just wanted to see how things were going."  
  
"Well you're welcome here anytime Daddy, you know that." Enid smiled, "And bring Mom and Vist next time. We have to keep trying to get at that little guy." Poe nodded.  
  
"I'll try, but it might be hard to get him to go along with it. And I don't want to put Cten through too much right now. I'll be sure to come by sometime soon, though." He nodded, waved to his daughter and grandchildren, and headed back into the kitchen.  
  
[The End]


End file.
